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An Historical Analjrsis
of
The Economic Growth of St. Louis
1840 - 1945

By
Harry L. Purdy, Ph. D»
Assistant Director of Research
Missouri Pacific Lines

Index
Part I
The River Metropolis, l8k)~l870
Page
Location Factors and Their Influence on St. Louis

1

Regional Specialization and Regional Interdependence. . . . . .

9

The City From l8k0 to l8?0.

"13

The City and The Steamboat

20

Commerce and Industry

...

26

The Influence of Railroad Development
Effects of the Civil War

51
Part II

Commercial and Industrial Development 1870-1910
Gro\rth of the City and Its Population
Rail and River, 1870-1910

57

Commerce and Industry, 1870-1910. .

. .

62

Rise and Decline of Iron Production .

80

Value of Manufactures, 1870-1910

86
Part III

Commerce and Industry 1910-19^-5
General Business Conditions
Population Trends

93
. . .

Commercial Trends 1910-19^-0

98

The St. Louis Trade Area
Manufacturing • 1910-19^5




97

107
, .

112

ii

Appendices . . . . . . .

Page
124 ff.

Appendix
Value of Manufactures

St. Louis, 1870 and 1875

B

Receipts and Shipments of Grain - St. Louis. Mo., 1867-1923

C

Receipts of Leading Commodities at St. Louis, Mo., 1859-1883

D

Receipts of Leading Commodities at St. Louis, Mo., 1865

E

St. Louis Receipts By River and Rail, 1873

F

St. Louis Shipments By River and Rail, IS65

G

St. Louis Shipments By River and Rail, 1873

E

Receipts and Shipments of Cattle, Sheep, Hogs, Horses and
Mules - St. Louis, 1867-1923.

I

Value of Manufactures, in Leading Industries St. Louis City
a,nd St. Louis Industrial Area For Selected Years

J

Cotton Compressed at St. Louis, 1875-1923

K

Population of St. Louis and Chicago Industrial Districts,
" 1840-1940

L

Railroads, i860, 1870, i860, I89O

M

Gross and Net Receipts of Cotton at St. Louis, 1871-1923

N

Receipts, Manufactures and Shipments of Flour - St. Louis, Mo.,
I85I-I923

0

Receipts and Shipments of Bran and Mill Feed - St. Louis,
1867-1923

P

Receipts and Shipments of Hay, St. Louis, 1867-1923

Q

Shipments of Bulk Grain "by River From St.. Louis to
New Orleans, 1874-1893

R

Receipts and Shipments of Wool, St. Louis, 1867-1913

S

St. Louis Receipts and Shipments of Lead, I867-I923

T

Tobacco Manufactured First Missouri Internal Revenue Collection
District 1873-1913




iii

Appendices

Appendix
U

Receipts and Shipments of Hog Products - St. Louis
1867-1913

V

Hogs Packed in the West and at St. Louis and East St. Louis,
1878-1912

¥

Total Value of Manufactures By Decades 1880-19^0 For The
St. Louis Industrial Area With a Breakdown "by Component
Areas

X

Wheat. Corn, and Oats—Receipts at Primary Markets, By Crop
Years: 1933 to 19^3

Y

Building Permits Issued - St. Louis, 1875-1913

Z

Trend of Receipts and Shipments "by Rail and River, St. Louis,
1883-.1923

AA.

Business of St. Louis Bridges and Ferries, 1883-1923

BB

Reference Bibliography




PART I

The River Metropolis, 18UO-I87O

Location Factors and Their Influence on St. Louis

An exclusive right to the Missouri River Indian trade probably
accounts more than any other factor for the precise location of St. Louis.
The Louisiana Fur Company, known also as Maxent, Laclede and Company, needed a trading post near the mouth of the Missouri River and Laclede in 1763
found on the eastern edge of present day Saint Louis a site with the desired characteristics. First, of course, it was at the front door of the
Missouri territory. In addition boats could be brought directly in for a
landing and yet higher ground rising back from the river gave level areas
needed for the proposed village and also promised protection against river
floods. While the importance of its original advantages has long since
disappeared the location possessed features which were of
interest to
Laclede, but which, in the economic environment of the Nineteenth Century,
helped materially in the making of a great city.
The twenty years preceding the Civil War have long been recognized as the heyday of the steamboat. In this period St. Louis was at the
strategic center of one of the two great inland water transportation
systems of the continent. In a letter, dated June 20, I8V7, to the St.
Louis delegation to the Chicago Convention, the Honorable Thomas H. Benton
described this central position with considerable enthusiasm.
"Many years ago the late Governor Clark and myself undertook to calculate the extent of boatable water in the valley
of the Mississippi; we made it about fifty thousand miles.' of
which thirty thousand were computed to unite above St. Louis,
and twenty thousand below. Of course, we counted aJll the
infant streams on which a flat, a keel, or a bateau could be
floated, and justly^ for every tributary of the humblest boatable character helps to swell not only the volume of the
central waters, but the commerce upon them. Of this immense
extent of river navigation, all combined in one system of
waters, St. Louis is the centre and the entrepot, presenting
even now, in its infancy, an astonishing and almost incredible
amount of commerce, destined to increase forever.11

^"Quoted in Scharf, J. Thomas, History of Saint Louis City and County
(1883), Vol. II, p. 1037.




2
As a site for the major harbor on the great inland vateway
system, so rapturously described by the tla S. Senator from Missouri, St.
Louie left a great deal to be desired. It did possess one advantage of
paramount importance to towns located on the shifting Mississippi - a
rocky foundation. It was thereby protected from the fate that befell its
neighboring predecessor, Ste. Genevieve, Thirty years before the time
when Laclede passed on his way up the river, the first white settlement in
Missouri had been established by lead miners and hunters near the present
site of Ste. Genevieve. However, even while the Louisiana Fur Company was
developing its trade in the Upper Mississippi area the Mississippi was
forcing inhabitants of the village to move back as banks of the river were
eroded. By 1790 the original site was wholly abandoned. In 1850 when St.
Louis could claim 104,978 residents, Ste. Genevieve had a population of
only 2,258 and this represented the peak to which its population was to
grow. Changes occurring in the channel of the river since that date have
left the town some three miles west of the river.^ Other towns have been
crippled by floods and by the vagaries of the changing Missississippi *
channel. St. Louis, however, while finding far from ideal conditions on
the banks of the riverA was at least well protected against annihilation
from erosion or flood.d One study of the advantages and disadvantages of
the St. Louis port, relative to others available in the area, comments that
at least "it was obvious that it would be far more likely to be
permanent. "3 The permanency of the St. Louis site may have been obvious
to Pierre Laclede but it is more likely that being in possession of an
eight year monopoly grant for the Missouri fur trade he was much more concerned with other aspects of the site,
A comment made in 185^ by the commercial chroniclers Chambers and
Khapp suggests that Laclede in choosing the precise site for his trading
poet might have been interested in little more than the presence of a
clearing!
The next year (1763) Laclede set out to explore the
country assigned to him, accompanied by two youths, afterwards
well known citizens of this place, the brothers Auguste and
Pierre Chouteau. Having carefully examined every point on the
river, not omitting Ste. Genevieve, which had then for ten
years been the headquarters of a considerable trade in peltry
and lead, he satisfied himself that no other site presented
the advantages sought for him to so great an extent as the
spot on which now stands St. Louis. It was, at the time when
Laclede first set foot upon it, a beautiful expanse of undulating prairie, free from woods, save at one point on the
river bank, near the centre of the present city, which was
then embellished by a grove of noble forest trees.11
f,

-Violette, Eugene Morrow, A History of Missouri (1918), pp. 12-13,
cf., Williams, Helen D., Factors in the Growth of St. Louis From
iQkO to i860 (193*0, PP. 2-3.
^Marshall, Willis W., Geography of the Early Port of St. Louis (1932),
P. 31.
2




3
The terraces or "bluffs comprising the waterfront of St. Louie
offered protection against floods but were no inconsiderable nuisance to
the busy port city of the steamboat era. Warehouses must be crowdod down
along the levee or built back at 'inconvenient distances and separated by
steep slopes from the narrow strip of flat shoreline. Apparently crowding
was preferred, for after the fire of UB49 serious proposals were made that
the city should buy the property between the levee and Commercial Street
between Vine and Market arad leave it open as a part of the levee.1 Nothing
came of the matter. Crowding and disorder on the levee continued to make a
costly problem for the steamboat operator and the merchant. A visitor to
the city in 1850 admired the warehouses but found no pleasure in their location "Water Street is well built up with a series of lofty
limestone warehouses; but an irretrievable error has been
committed in arranging them at so short distance from the
water. On some accounts this proximity to the river may be
convenient; but for the sake of a broad area for commerce;
for the sake of a fresh and salubrious circulation of air
from the water; for the sake of scenic beauty, or a noble
promenade for pleasure, there should have been no encroachment upon the precincts of the feternal river1."^
The steamboatmen and merchants probably worried very little about
the loss of "fresh and salubrious circulation of air" but they no doubt
found their own way to express their exasperated displeasure at delays and
loss of merchandise occurring on the levee.5
An even more troublesome fault that threatened the very existence
of the port developed in the early steamboat period. Such heavy silting
occurred that the "waterfront" was threatening to move inland. Normally a
river port would find a favorable location on the outside of a meander. In
that position it would have its waterfront scoured by the current of the
river and would enjoy deep water and an absence of silting. On the
stretches of the river in which Laclede was interested the eastern bank was
subject to flooding and no doubt in his canoes and pirogues Laclede was
little concerned with shallows that might develop some time in the future
from silting. So the St. Louis site suited his purposes but presented its
problems to a port city a few decades later. The predicament in which the
city found itself is described by Scharf as follows:
"Almost coincidently with the arrival of the first steamboat at St. Louis in iSlT a sand-bar formed in the bend at the
lower end of the town, which gradually extended up as far as
Market Street, making a naked beach at low water. Another bar
soon formed in the river at the upper end of the city, west of
Bloody Island. Thus, at the very outset of the commercial
progress of St. Louis, the current of the Mississippi, cutting
^Marshall, Willis W., Geography of the Early Port yf St. Louis (1932),
PP. 31-38.
2
cf., Stevens, Walter B., History of Saint Louis, the Fourth City,
1764-1909 (1909), PP. 535-6.
3cf., Marshall, Willis W., Geography of the Early Port of St. Louis
(1932), p. 38.
~
'



if
deeper and deeper into the American Bottom on the eastern side
of Bloody Island, was threatening the city with the diversion of
its channel to the east side of the island, leaving St. Louis
'high and dry1, with a sand-bar in front of it.
In this crisis it was generally predicted that the city
would amount to nothing in a commercial point of view, and
the timid refused to make investments in real estate, fearing
that the town would be left without the facility of availing
itself of the benefits which the new steam system of navigation promised."*^
Efforts made in 1835 to remove sand-bars from the harbor by plowing were fruitless and the city turned to Congress for aid. The first
Federal work on the harbor was undertaken in 1837 under the direction of
Lieut. Robert E. Lee. The problem continued all through the years until
the decline of steamboating, but intermittent aid from Congress and the
persistent efforts of city officials prevented closing of the harbor that
might have placed the city beyond resuscitation by the later-arriving
railroads.
Two other hazards militated against the growth of St, Louis as
the entrepot of the Mississippi Valley. The first was damage to vessels
from ice. In some winters the port could be used, and was used, for wintering steamboats. But a severe winter in 1856 brought staggering losses
to the port in the break up of ice in late February.
Ten steamboats were
sunk and many others were badly damaged as ice to the thickness of four
feet moved down in mass on the port. Two Alton wharf-boats which had probably been wintered at St. Louis for safety were shattered to pieces and
cast up on the shore on a ridge of ice.5
Although the losses were particularly heavy in 1856, damage
occurred in many other years and the danger was an ever-present one hurting
the development of the city.^" In his study, The Declining Significance of
the Mississippi as a Commercial Highway, John B. Appleton characterized
the port as "a veritable killing place for steamboats from ice movements"?
A second hazard affected St. Louis through a danger present to a
special degree on the river stretches immediately above and below the port,
Floods on the rivers above St. Louis, particularly on the Missouri, brought
huge trees and masses of debris down the river. Lodging in the channels
below St. Louis they created a viciously destructive obstacle to navigation.

IScharf, J. Thomas, History of Saint Louis City (l88j), Vol. II,
p. 1053.
^Marshall, Willis W # , Geography of the Early Fort of St. Louis (1932),
P. 73.
^Chittendon, H.M., History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the
Missouri River (1903), p. 207.
**cf. Reinhardt, A a H., Gunboats of James B. Eads During the Civil War
(1936), p. 19.
5Appleton, John B„, The Declining Significance of the Mississippi as a
Commercial Highway in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century, Reprinted in
R. G. Thwaites, Early Western Travels.



5
There is a record of insurance companies in Cincinnati paying out $234,000
to cover steamboat losses occurring in the 180 mile stretch from St, Louis
to the Ohio in the short period of 6 weeks in the Fall of 1842.1 Fires
and explosions contributed their part to these losses but snags and
shallows made up the major risks.
In this same short stretch of river 72
steamboats were sunk in 17 months during the years 1842-3. Snagboats at
work on the river in the 1830*s did a great deal to reduce the hazards but
the disadvantages found on the river below St. Louis remained large:
"As early as 1841 the attention of Congress was called to
the condition of the Mississippi above the mouth of the Ohio.
From 1836 to l84l it was said that more property had been
destroyed from the mouth of the Ohio to St. Louis by snags than
on all the other parts of the river and its tributaries. Notwithstanding the general government had provided snag-boats for
the lower river, the manifest neglect of the Western rivers
was entailing an annual loss of millions of dollars upon the
commerce of the West, owing to the dangerous and destructive
condition of the then only commercial highway for that great
section of the country.''^
The average steamboat did not last more than five years. After
that they were obsolescent or had sunk or been blown up. Around 1850 on
one bend in the, river between St. Ltfuis and Cairo there lay the wrecks of
103 steamboats.4
With all the disadvantages militating against the development
of St. Louis in the heyday of steamboating it may well be asked why there
developed on the site of Laclede's old settlement the entrepot of the
Mississippi Valley. The raw material wealth of the upper valley and the
regional economic specialization developing in the United States made it
inevitable that a great commercial city would develop somewhere on the
lower Ohio or on the Mississippi between Memphis and some more northerly
point on the river. But why at St. Louis?
Among the historians who have depicted and analyzed the growth
of Saint Louis there is complete unanimity of opinion as to the reasons
for the development of the particular site on which Lac lode?s village of
10,000 population stood in l8l$ at the beginning of steamboating on the
Mississippi River System. These views are rather completely summarized
in the following excerpt from L. Y. Hortonls Analysis of the St. Louis
Trade Area:

•'•Hall, J., The West (l848), pp. 60-6l.
Allen, T., Commerce and Navigation of The Valley of The
Mississippi (l848), p. 11 ff'.
2

^Scharf, J. Thomas, History of Saint Louis City (1883), Vol. II,
p. 1043.
^Stevens, Walter B*, St. Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (1909)
P. 357.




6
"It is common knowledge that wealth and population
(therefore, cities) tend to concentrate about breaks in
transportation, whether the breaks be between land and
water transportation, between two types of land transportation, or between two types of water transportation.
In this regard, St. Louis was doubly fortunate because
there were both breaks between two types of water transportation and between land and water transportation.
The channel of the Mississippi below St. Louis had
a minimum depth of about six feet, while above St# Louis
the minimum depth was only three or four feet. With the
development of larger river steamers, the effect of these
differences in the depth of the channel in these two
integral parts of the river was the breaking up of the
river traffic into two fleets, one adapted to the deeper
waters south of the city and the other to the shallow
waters north of the city. The reason for this was that
it was cheaper to carry on business in the larger vessels
wherever possible and to use the smaller vessels only where
the larger ones could not operate because of the shallowness of the water or the inconsiderableness of the cargoes
available. Although it was possible during the spring and
fall of the year for vessels with a deeper draft to penetrate farther northward than St. Louis, it became the
general practice to limit their use to the lower
Mississippi.
As a result, St. Louis became the bulk breaking and
reshipment point, as it was at this city that the cargoes
were unloaded from the deep draft vessels and reloaded on
the shallow, and vice versa. In this way St. Louis became
established as a transfer point and it was both the northern
terminus for one great fleet of steamboats and the southern
terminus for another. Another reason for the early growth
of the commercial aspect of the city was its position. It
was located at the crossroads of the oast-west and the
north-south traffic. This situation was enhanced by the
fact that it was the crossing of the east-west overland
traffic and the north-south river traffic."-**

Norton, L. Y., Analysis of the St. Louis Trade Territory (1935),
pp. 13-lU.




7
It seems that a "handicap" in the dominant river transportation
endowed the St. Louis site with its essential advantage as a commercial
center.1 In addition to change in depth of the river channel at St. Louis
and the "break created by the river in overland east-west transportation,
another related factor also enhanced the commercial value of the St. Louis
location. New Orleans and other lower Mississippi points and various
eastern points, such as Baltimore and Pittsburgh, shipped freight by the
Mississippi or the Ohio to various destinations on the upper Mississippi
and on the Missouri Biver. As a result a break-up of bulk shipments at some
distributing point was almost inevitable. With the change in ruling river
depth at St. Louis the city was the obvious reshipment point. Finally,
even the weather offered some strengthening of these factors which placed
high value on the site of Saint Louis as a commercial center:
there was a seasonal difference in the period during
"
which goods were available for transportation above and below
St. Louis. The reasons for this were two-fold; the stage of the
river differed above and below this port so that the river might
be navigable below and yet not so above; usually in the spring
the river below St. Louis would be open before that portion of
the river above the port was free from ice. As a result of
these two features of navigation, goods were brought up to St.
Louis and stored until such time as the upper parts of the
river could be open to navigation. In view of the fact that it
was the commercial practice to reship the goods at St .Louis,
it was necessary to hold the goods in store here until the upriver boats came downstream with the winter1s produce from the
up-river regions. Likewise in the fall, the upper river was
closed to navigation at a much earlier period than was the lower.

^Also see Williams, Helen D., Factors in the Growth of St. Louis
From 1840 to i860 (193*0, p. 23:
"That the city realized the importance of its position is clearly
shown by the following statement in the St. Louis Business
Directory for 18*1-2, page b2:
1
Owing to the depth of the water in the Mississippi
from the mouth of the Missouri down to New Orleans
being much greater than in the waters above, the same
class of boats which can be profitably employed in
the lower trade cannot ordinarily extend their trip
beyond St. Louis. ... The result of this is to make
St. Louis the great shipping point for the imports of
all the vast territories lying north and east of her,
and a considerable portion of the trade south and east.1
The carrying trade of St. Louis profited greatly from this situation. The city became the commercial mart for all the country from
the mouth of the Ohio, north, and from Lake Michigan, west. For
the first ten years of the period of this study every pound of
western produce and western merchandise broke bulk at St. Louis."




8
As a result of these factors, the ease of obtaining a cargo
was characterized by a high degree of seasonality, the two
periods of excessive activity being in the spring and fall
of the year.
Had there been no suoh difference in the periods of
open navigation on the river, and had this break in navigation been at some other point, it is possible that St. Louis
would not have achieved the significant place that it did as
a base of supplies for the up-river regions or as a place
for storage of freights.ffl
In respect to east-west land travel the river offered a "break11
in transportation that was to be of much greater importance in the period
after 1865 when a variety of railroad routes centered in St. Louis. In
this earlier period and until the Eads Bridge was completed in 187^ St.
Louis was served by steam-powered ferries. The first charter for this
service had been granted in 1819 to Samuel Wiggins who sold his boats and
franchise in 1832. Other ferry companies were enfranchised but a virtual
monopoly was held by the original Wiggins Company. Although the services
and the charges of the ferry company seemed to be as satisfactory as conditions permitted, ferrying across the Mississippi with interruptions by
storm and ice never supplied adequate means of communication between the
east and west banks of the river.
The flow of east-west commerce was checked by the obstacle presented by the Mississippi and an enhanced trade was deposited on the doorway of St. Louis just as a check in the flow of the river built up much
less desirable results in the form of sand bars in the river channel.
However, St. Louisans did suffer from the uncertainty and high cost attaching to ferrying and early proposals were made for building a highway
bridge across the river.
But the estimated cost of $737*600 was too much
to permit any progress to be made. The matter continued to be agitated
and a bridge company was formed in 1855 but financial support could not be
found for it. In 1865 both a Missouri and an Illinois Company were chartered and by I87U the bridge was built under the guiding hand of James B.
Eads.

^Marshall, Willis W., Geography of the Early Port of St.
Louis (1932), pp. ^9-30.




2

HOW, L., James B. Eads (1900), p. 57.

~

9
Regional Specialization and Regional Interdependence

Situated in the West at a dominating "break" in one of the two
great waterways of the continent, St. Louis was inevitably affected by the
regional economic specialization and resultant interregional trade which
developed with the rise of the "factory system".
By iQkO the industrial revolution had given England her well
developed factory system. With the disappearance of domestic or home production, England lost the large measure of self-sufficiency she had formerly possessed as she came to specialize in factory production of manufactured articles. For food and raw materials she increasingly went abroad selling her manufactures in every settled portion of the world. A
related development was evolving the same system of production in the
United States, mainly in the northeastern portion. In America, as in
England, the industries in which home manufacture first yielded to factory
methods were the textiles, particularly cotton. The concentration of manufacturers in eight eastern states is readily seen in the following figures
showing the volume of manufactured cotton goods, woolens, and machinery in
the leading states and in the United States as a whole:1

Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
New York
Connecticut
New Jersey
Maryland
Total - 9 states
Total - U. S.

Cotton Goods

Woolen Goods

$16,553,423
7,116,792
5,015,007
4,412,304
3,640,237
2,715,964
2, .086, io4
1,150,580
42,688,1H1
46,350,453

$ 7,082,898
842,172
2,319,061
795,784
3,537,537
2,494,313
446,'7io
235,900
17,7^3,175
20,696,99?

Machinery
$

926,975
437,100
1,998,152
106,8i4
2,895,517
319,680
755,050
348,165
7,787,453
10,980,581

Massachusetts with several areas well endowed with water power
had shifted the center of the textile industry from Rhode Island to the
Merrimack Valley which had become an important center of manufacture. The
production in Massachusetts of 2k million dollars of textiles and machinery
was equal to about thirty percent of the nationTs total output of these
products. The above figures show that between seventy and ninety percent
of these leading factory products were manufactured in the New England
States and Pennsylvania and New York. Other lines of production were
grouped around these leading industries to odd to the concentration of industry in the Northeast.
By modern standards, the factories were small. The average
cotton mill had only 58 employes. Woolen mills, in many areas making
little headway against household manufacture, were still smaller with an
average of 15 employes. However, these industries and many which had only
begun to feel the impact of new production techniques were being pressed
%ogart, E« L. and Thompson, C. M., Readings in the Economic
History of the United States (1929), p. 283.




10
with varying speed into the new pattern. As transportation became more
certain and transportation costs fell precipitously with the development of
river, canal, and railroad facilities, the practical market area of the
factory was tremendously widened. As a result, increased production from
individual plants and from specialized areas became not only feasible but
advantageous as the factory organization with a larger scale of production
materially reduced manufacturing costs.
In the decade before 1840, the pressures of new technical methods
and wider markets were exercising a growing influence on the organization
of lumber manufacture, flour milling, slaughtering, iron production, and
many others. Slaughtering was well on its way into the use of larger production units and Cincinnati was developing as the leading pork packing
center of the country. By 1840, technical changes in the iron industry
were permitting the use of anthracite for smelting and a shift westward in
the center of that industry was foreshadowed. Small furnaces using charcoal for smelting had earlier set the iron industry in a long belt stretching from Lake Champlain to the Carolinas but signs pointing to the concentration of the industry in Pennsylvania were apparent. Further, the
English practice of smelting with coke from bituminous coal was making some
headway and was holding out promising opportunities to the bituminous coal
regions of the country.
A definite pattern of interregional trade, with important effects
for St. Louis, developed out of the concentration of manufacture in the
Northeast, the occupation of the South with its cotton kingdom, and the
agricultural and frontier activities of the western states. From the East,
a variety of manufactured products moved south and west; from the West,
foodstuffs went to the other two regions either for domestic consumption or
export; and the South balanced its books, although they did not always
balance, by its sales of cotton, hemp, sugar, and tobacco, mainly to the
Northeast and to European markets.
The regional specialization which was to center manufacturing in
the eastern states for decades was still only in its formative stages. In
the decade from 1840 to 1850, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York stood in that
order in the national production of wheat. However, it is worth noting
that by i860 the three leading states were Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin
with Illinois leading in corn production.1
After his trip through the eastern states the English traveler,
J. S. Buckingham, in 18^-1 very aptly summarized the economic position of
Pennsylvania which in greater or less degree could be applied to the other
eastern states:
"Of the manufactures, trade, and commerce of
Philadelphia, more may be said as to its prospects than
as to its actual condition. At present there is not nearly
so much of either as there might have been, or as there
will be a few years hence, when the vast resources of the
state come to be more fully developed. The few manufactories
now carried on here are confined to carpets, floorcloth, some
hardware of a course kind, glass, porcelain, and articles of
-'-Van Metre, Thurman W., The Economic History of the United States
(1921), p. 591.



11
domestic consumption; but little or nothing is made for exportation, if we except a very extensive and excellent manufactory
of steam engines, conducted on a large scale, and supplying
both the cities of the seacoast and the rising towns of the
Western Waters.
That which promises so much for the future, however, is the
gradual development of the mineral wealth of Pennsylvania. In
the interior of this state has been recently discovered beds of
coal and iron sufficiently extensive to afford materials for
manufacturing for centuries to come; and these will soon become
articles of export to other parts of the country. The communications by railroad and canal every day, extending into the
interior, by Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, to the Ohio, and thence
down the Mississippi, up the Missouri, on by the Arkansas to the
Bocky Mountains, and by the Bed Biver to Texas, will facilitate
the diffusion of imported as well as domestic manufactured goods,
and form a channel for the conveyance of the produce of the
countries watered by those rivers to Philadelphia, where the
Delaware will form its outlet to Europe, the West Indies, and
other parts of the world."1
Great things were happening in transportation in this year 18^-0.
Ten years earlier Peter Cooper had assured success for the start of the
Baltimore 8c Ohio and for his own speculation in Baltimore real estate with
a successful trial of the one-ton steam locomotive, Tom Thumb. By 1840,
over 2800 miles of rail line had been built but no connected system of lines
existed except along the Atlantic CoastftromNew York to Washington and even
this stretch was broken by one short gap. Elsewhere short lines linked
nearby towns with very few of the links in excess of 100 miles. Four separate pieces of road radiated out from the western end of Lake Erie for distances of 30 to J4-0 miles to give Michigan its only rail service.^
In Ohio only one stretch, about 50 miles long, is found Joining
Sandusky and Carey. Indiana and Kentucky were no further advanced having
lines of about similar length joining, in the first case, Vernon and Madison,
and in the second, Frankfort and Lexington. In western Illinois, immediately west of Springfield, that state had its only rail line joining Jacksonville and Meredosia.
The next twenty years were to see the construction of many
through rail lines particularly in the area bounded on the south by the line
of the Baltimore and Ohio from Washington through Cincinnati to St. Louis
and on the east by the Atlantic and on the west by the Mississippi Biver.
But in l8U0 the inland and coastal waterways dominated the domestic transportation scene. For over a decade the rival cities of the East Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and New York - had been preoccupied with
canal construction. New York City and western New York state, and New
England to a lesser extent, benefited tremendously from the completion of
^Buckingham, J.S., America, Historical, Statistic and Descriptive
(1841), Vol. II, pp. 359-360.
2qf. Paullin, C.O., Atlas of the Historical Georgraphy of the
United States, (1932).




12
the Erie Canal in 1825. The cost of transporting freight was cut to onetenth and much trade and travel to the West was diverted to this northern
route. In the West, Ohio was well on its way with its construction of over
800 miles of canals with two main channels lying across the state from
Lake Erie to the Ohio River. One channel joined Cleveland and Portsmouth
in 1832 and the other was completed "between Toledo and Cincinnati by 1842.
Indiana also was busy with the Wabash Canal connecting Toledo with the Ohio
River. The Illinois and Michigan Canal connecting the lake with navigable
sections of the Illinois River was started in 1836 but, in spite of Federal
land grant aid, was not completed until 1848.
Although a few of the canals, particularly the Erie, and the
WeHand Canal around Niagara Falls, were of considerable importance in
shaping the pattern of American economic development the canals generally
possessed little more than local significance when compared with the Great
Lakes and the Mississippi River system. By l8ll, four years after Fulton
displayed on the Hudson the potentialities of the steamboat, steam power
was introduced on the Mississippi. Twenty years later, a trip down the
river to New Orleans was taking only a week and over 125 steamboats were
found on the Ohio and Mississippi. On the Great Lakes tonnage grew even
more rapidly. However, while the Lakes could boast a larger tonnage, less
than one third of their vessels were ste am-powered.
With a population of 312,710 in 1840, New York had already
assumed the commanding lead over her rivals that she was never to relinquish, Baltimore stood in second place with 102,313 followed closely by _
New Orleans with 102,193, Philadelphia with 93,665 and Boston with 93,383.
A population of 46,338 easily gave Cincinnati first place in the northwest.
In a country that was so predominantly rural in character the 16,469 residents of St. Louis made the town one of the more important centers. Only
nineteen cities stood above St. Louis in the population roster and all of
these were in New England and the Atlantic or Gulf Coastal states except
for Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky. (21,210).
Pittsburgh's population of 21,115 placed it no great distance
above St. Louis and except for it and Cincinnati and Louisville, Laclede's
village had come to tower above its neighbors in the west. Indiana had no
town of over 5,000 population and Illinois could only make moderate claims
for Chicago with 4,470; Springfield, 2,579; Alton, 2,340; and Quincy, 2,319.
With a population of only 1,174 Jefferson City, Mo. fell far behind.

"4few Orleans increased in population from 29,737 in 1830 to
102,193 in 1840.




13
The City From 1840 to 1870
It is in this national setting that we find St. Louis in 1840.
The town itself stretched along the river front with its northern and
southern corporate limits in l 8 4 l extended so as to reach about twenty-six
modern city blocks above and below Market Street.1 On the north, the
boundary of the city was Dock Street; on the south, Louisa; and on the west
present day l8th Street. The^city directory for l840 shows almost no addresses west of Ninth Street.^ The corner of Olive end Twelfth Street,
where land was selling for thirteen dollars a foot, was much too for from
the center of the city to be considered for commercial property and its
"excessive" distance west did not make it very attractive for residential
b u i l d i n g . ^ The ground now utilized by railroad yards and industrial plants
between Chouteau and Market Streets was largely covered between Seventh and
Eighteenth Street by Chouteau's Pond which had an area of over one hundred
acres. A peninsula extending into the pond in the neighborhood of Eleventh
and Poplar supplied the site for the Chouteau Mansion. The frontier character of the town and its smallness is clearly apparent in the comments of
Richard Smith Elliott who visited there in 1843:
"We spent the winter of 1843-44 in St. Louis and took
boarding first in the then outskirts of the city, in the brick
mansion owned by Mrs. John Perry, on the corner of Sixth and
Locust Streets. Luther M. Kennett was building the first
marble front ever in St. Louis on the next lot north, but folks
generally thought it was rather far away from business, then
mostly transacted on the Levee, Main and Second streets. From
our windows we could look westward to a clump of forest trees
at l8th and St. Charles Streets and could see the camp of some
Indians on a friendly visit to Colonel Mitchell, the superintendent. Beyond the Indian camp were farms. I had very little
to do and often strolled away up 6th and 7th Streets where but
few houses obstructed the view and I sometimes went even as far
as Chouteau's Pond, and would look at the outside of the old
stone mill, in which ten years later I aided to start the first
stone sawing by steam in St. Louis, and would try to imagine
what a nice cascade the water tricking over the mill dam would
make if there was only enough of it. Mr. Renshaw's lone mansion
wa-s at the corner of 9th and Market, but there was little if any
city growth beyond. On Morgan St. and Franklin Ave., I was told
that I could get lots at seven or eight dollars a foot. I did
not think it worth while to regret that I had no money to buy
with." ^
^The Act of the Legislature of February 15, l84l set the boundaries of
the city at the river on the east, Second Carondelet Avenue on the west, at
St. George in the county on the south, and at Stony Creek on the north.
Tota.1 area was approximately 4.5 square miles. This represented an absorption into the city of the hitherto independent town of North St. Louis
known as Bremen which had been bounded by the river and Twelfth, Madison
and Montgomery Streets.
^Keemle, Charles, The St. Louis Directory, 1840-1.
^Scharf, J. Thomas, History of Saint Louis City and County (1883),
Vol. II, p. 1030.
^Stevens, Walter B., St.Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (1909),p.792,



14
The appearance of the rapidly growing town had "been considerably
altered in the decades before l840# Older sections of the city still had
characteristics of the early period with narrow streets and stone cottages
with steeply sloping roofs. In the newer districts streets were more regular and wider and American styles in architecture predominated. The 1836
City Directory comments with satisfaction that the older French and. Spanish
construction styles were fast disappearing so that "scarcely a single building remains of those which were erected when St. Louis was under the dominion of France and Spain".2 Others, however, viewed with far less satisfaction the displacement of the older architecture and the dominance of on
"imitation of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore residential
architecture
built flush to the s t r e e t " . 5
In less desirable ways the town imitated its contemporaries in
many parts of America. Unpaved streets changed from choking dust to quagmires as the seasons changed. And any time except in the rainy season
filth and refuse collected in the roadways. In l84l residents on Pine
Street between Main and Second petitioned to have "the stagnant water and
other nuisance" removed. The stench on the street was reported as unbearable and "gutters remained in their putrid state from one street to
another".
At least on one score some of the grounds for past criticism of
the town was soon removed. In I8V7 the citizens celebrated with all proper
flourishes the completion of their new gas lighting system. Considerable
evidence of the crude conditions found in the town in the thirties is
apparent in the Improvements described in a current publication of 1853.
"Twenty years since, (i.e. 1833) there were but few paved
streets or sidewalks here, though now there are fifty-three
miles of street paving, and one hundred miles of side-walk pavement. A wharf paved in the most substantial manner for nearly
one mile in length, and rapidly extending, has taken the place
of a few yards of ragged pavement which was all that served the
purpose of a landing here twenty years ago. Then a sewer was
unknown, while now there are completed or commenced thirteen
miles of sewer, under a system which has been in operation
scarcely four years. The following is a statement from the City
Engineer, brought up to this time, showing the extent of wharf,
pavement and sewers:
1.
2.
3.
k.
5.
6.

Total length of street pavement in city about 53 miles.
Total side-walk pavement about 100 miles.
Total wharf pavement about 9/l0 miles.
Total wharf about
k 3A
"
Total water-pipe laid " 35 l/h
"
Total sewers
13 3/5
"
No. of streets 175."

^Stevens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth City, 176^-1909 (1909),p. 125
Keemle, Charles, The St. Louis Directory, 1856-7, p. ii.

2

^Stevens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth City, 176V-1909 (1909),p. 530.
^Williams, Helen D., Factors in the Growth of St. Louis From 18*4-0
to i860 (l93h), PP. 5-10.
5Missouri Republican, Annual Review History of St. Louis (185*0



15
The life of the town in 1840 obviously was focussed on the
commercial waterfront. Main Street, also known as Front Street, would have
been First Street under a numerical designation^ Between it and the actual
waterfront the irregularities of the shore line allowed room in places for
such short streets as Water or Exchange Square but Main Street lived up to
its name in this western commercial center. Offices and warehouses of the
commission and forwarding houses were concentrated here. As late as 1855,
when growth had forced some considerable dispersion in the commercial
activity of the city, seventy-three of the ninetv-one commission merchants
found in St. Louis were located on Front Street.
A record of the varied commercial interests of St. Louis of 18^0
was written on the name plates of the commercial establishments. Walking
north along Main Street toward the Tontine Coffeehouse at No. 89 north, a
visitor would pass the "factory11 of Andrews and Beakey who listed themselves as tin, copper, and sheet iron manufacturers. Along a few doors he
would see the drygoods shop of J. J. Anderson, the warehouse of Augustus
Adams, importer of fancy French and German goods and English cutlery; and
next door the wholesale drygoods warehouse of Peter Blow. Among the variety of shops and small manufactories and warehouses that still lay between
our traveler and his destination he would notice doctors1 offices, retail
and wholesale druggists, merchant tailors, wholesale and retail drygoods
merchants, a wholesale grocer, a manufacturer of copper, tin and sheet iron
who also sold stoves, and the establishment of S. P. Carpenter who dealt
in boots and shoes. At 75 North Main our traveler would pass the banking
offices of Benoist and Co. and just before reaching the Tontine Coffeehouse the factory of Beltzhoover and Bobb, manufacturers of hats and caps.
If the refreshments offered by the Tontine House encouraged the
visitor to continue his walk north along Main Street he would see similar
shops and warehouses and in addition, without going far, a. "segar" store,
a cabinet warehouse and upholstery shop, a blacksmith shop and foundry.
Still further north would be seen a tinner and copper manufactory, an engraving shop and the offices of the American Fur Company under the name of
Pierre Chouteau, Jr. & Co. Such were the varied establishments, stores and
shops and small factories testifying to the presence of a vigorous commercial community.
The population of St. Louis was growing rapidly and both the
number and character of the buildings of the town were changed by the influx of immigration. German immigration predominated and the German residents brought a number of changes to the city. A City Census of 1851
showed the population had increased from 16,6k9 to 77,716 in the short

hhe iQkO City Directory prepared by Charles Keemle apparently used
the street names Main and Front interchangeably without any geographical
location appearing as a reason for the use of one instead of the other.
2

Williams, Helen D., Factors in the Growth of Saint Louis From
181+0 to i860 (193*0, p. 15.




16
space of eleven years and showed the following interesting division of the
total of 41,730 residents who were of foreign extraction:
German
Irish
English
Other nations
Free negroes
Total

23,81^
11,277
2,921
2,458
1,259
41,730

It is apparent that over one half of the total population was
represented by immigrants and nearly one third of the total were Germans.1
Falsification which occurred in the 1870 Census makes its report on the
total population worthless. The total was reported as 351,189 for St.
Louis County whereas it appears that £he true figure would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of 267,000.
However, the breakdown by population origins for 1870 can be assumed to be approximately correct and it
shows the same influx from foreign countries as the source of over ont
third of the population increase from 1840 to 1870.^ In the latter year
sixty-four percent of the population had been born in the United States,
the bulk being of Missouri parentage - the influx from other states making
up less than thirty percent of the American-born population. Of the approximate one third of the total population of foreign birth well over one half
came from Germany, about one quarter from Ire land, and less than five percent from any one other country.

iFor 1850 the Missouri Bepublican reported in the issue of Jan. 1,
I85I, the following population figures:
Total population
Total foreign born
Born in Germany
"
" Ireland
"
" England
Other foreign
Countries
2
cf. Stevens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth

77,860
40,000
24,000
11,000
3,000
2,000
City 1764-1909 (1909), p. 989:

"From i860 to 1880, twenty years, the population of St. Louis
increased 164,944. That is what the honest counts show. The
census of 1870 must be discredited and ignored in any analysis
of the- growth of the population. Possibly a fair division of the
growth by decades would allot two-fifths of the 164,944 to the
ten years from i860 to 1870 and three-fifths to the decade from
1870 to 1880, The next ten years, from i860 to 1890, showed an
increase of 101,248. From 1890 to 1900 the increase was 123,468."
^Scharf, J. Thomas, History of Saint Louis City.and County (1883),
Vol. II, pp. 1014-1023.




17
The German newcomers and first generation descendants of Germanborn residents made up a large part of the city in IS70 and very definitely
influenced the physical characteristics and social habits and institutions
of the city,1 South Second Street underwent typical changes. Predominantly
French in the first part of the Nineteenth Century with a number of small
hotels and stores it changed much in physical appearance as larger German
inns and shops were built. The Rheinesche Weinhalle was the best of the
inns catering only to privileged characters while the "wine hall" of Louis
Krug was a noted gathering place for reporters from Westliche Post,
Anzeiger, and Tages-Chronik.2 Many German churches were built after 1834
when the first German parish was founded under Reverend Korndorffer. And
the Arts received their support in varied forms. Many German theatrical
performances were presented in various halls and in 1859 Heinrich Bornstein
opened the St. Louis Opera House on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth.
The Philharmonic Society from 1859 to 1869, the St. Louis Sangerbund, and
many other organizations contributed to the fine arts but probably none
was as welcome and as much enjoyed, nor so long remembered, as the first
German Brass Band which was organized in 1838. It may have lacked some of
the subtlety of its artistic contemporaries but few of them could boast the
enthusiastic following it possessed.
Inevitably with the growth of population the city was forced to
expand. To care for growing business and for the population increase from
14,253 in 1837 to 35,930 in 18*4-5 over eleven hundred structures were built
and the same rapid construction continued until the Civil War. However,
the construction commonly fell behind the demand. Storehouses in good and
bad locations were quickly filled and in 18*4-5, in spite of the building of
2,000 houses, homeseekers seemed to have been as hard pressed as they were
a century later in St. Louis. Rents increased sharply through the two
decades after 1840 and property values jumped rapidly.-- Land ten miles
from the waterfront that sold in 1845 for seven dollars an acre increased
twenty-fold in value in ten years. Even in i860 when over 2,500 homes were
built the demand continued to drive values upward. In twenty years the
assessed value of city real estate increased from twelve million to one
hundred million.
A brief summary suggests the varied growth associated with this
growth of property values:
"In 18*4-0 St. Louis did not have a railroad nor one within
striking distance whereas in 1859 five roads had their termini at
this point. In 1840 the city did not have even an omnibus line
and in i860 it had twenty-five miles of street railway. There were
only two public schools in 18*4-0, one on Fourth Street and the other
on Sixth Street, while in i860 there was a high school and twentyfive grade schools. In 1840 St. Louis had no gas and no telegraph
but in i860 it had fifty miles of gas pipe and fifty-five miles of
ISome Notes on Missouri, Scribner's Monthly, Vol. VIII, (July 1874).
Kargau, Ernst B., St. Louis in Fruheren Jahren (1893), pp. 11-28.
3cf. Hogan, John, Thoughts About the City of St. Louis (1854).
Hli^liams, Helen D., Factors in the Growth of Saint Louis From
1840 to i860 (1934), p. 13.
2




18
telegraph. In 1840 St. Louis had fifteen churches while in
i860 it had sixty Protestant churches, twenty-two Catholic and
two Jewish synagogues
Growth, however, did not go on without serious setbacks. The
first calamity striking the city came in the form of a destructive flood
in the winter of 1843-44. The city suffered severe property losses, bjjt
lost even more in destruction of shipping and temporary loss of trade. ^
Through May and June flood conditions existed, reaching a climax late in
June which was sustained for nearly a week before any recession occurred.
Bottom land around St. Louis was completely flooded and along the waterfront losses were considerable. One steamboat finding its customary landing place submerged moved up town and tied up through a window to a makeshift capstan inside a warehouse at the corner of Washington Avenue and
Commercial Alley.* Damage in the areas immediately around St. Louis was
even more severe than in the city. Across the river in St. Clair County
the villages of Cahokia, Prairie du Pont and Illinoistown (now East St. ,
Louis) were hard hit and the first two never recovered from the effects.
The year 1849 saw the town receive two brutal blows. Both fire
and plague struck its citizens with dismayingly large loss of life and serious setbacks to the commerce of the town. The "Great Fire" of Saint Louis
broke out about ten o'clock on the night of May 17 on the Steamboat White
Cloud from where it spread to other steamers and to a row of shanties along
the waterfront between Yine and Locust Streets. Dynamite was finally used
to check the fire at Second and Market Streets. By the time it had. burned
out next morning it had destroyed twenty-three steamboats and three barges
and virtually wiped out all building on an area along the river of about
fifteen City blocks lying between Locust and Elm Streets.^
The editors of the Western Journal and Civilian maintained at the
time that the losses from the fire were being "greatly exaggerated in many
of the public prints" and claimed much of the building losses would have
been quickly replaced if the cholera epidemic had not followed quickly on
the heels of the fire.
It seems, however, that for a relatively sma.ll
community with property values in the neighborhood of fifty million dollars
the property losses were sizable. The boats and cargoes lost were reported
as valued at $439,000 and the City property destroyed at various figures,
the least of which was over $2,500,000.1 As occurred in other great city
fires there were incidental benefits derived in rebuilding. A better class
of structures was built and property holders on Main Street secured the
IWilliams, Helen D.. Factors in the Growth of Saint Louis from 1840
1
to i860 (1934), p. 20.
~
^Taylor, J. N., Sketch Book of St. Louis (1858), p. 2J.
^Chittenden, H. M,, History of Early Steamboat, Navigation on the
Missouri River (1903), pp. 144-5.
%rink, McDonough & Co. (ed,), History of St. Clair County (l88l),
PP. 325-330.
5cf. Spencer, Thomas E., The Story of Old St. Louis (1914), p. 158.
^Western Journal and Civilian (l849), Vol. II, p. 348.
^Shoemaker, F. C., Missouri and Missourians (1942), Vol. 1, p. 338
cites estimates as high as $5*500,000.




19
widening of that principal business thoroughfare. Immediately after the
fire they petitioned the Council to set back the building lines at their
own expense and the present width of the street was obtained.
The Western Journal reports that cholera appeared in the city
early in January 181+9 and assumed epidemic proportions in May.1 In three
months over six thousand died, ten percent of the population, two-thirds of
them as a result of the plague. Writing in i860 Edwards depicted very
clearly the invitation which the city offered to the plague:
"It may be here remarked, that if there were any place on
the Mississippi River which could furnish in abundance aliment
for the cholera, St. Louis was that place. Most of the alleys
were unpaved, and were used as repositories for all kinds of
filth thrown from the dwellings, and which had become blended
with the soil one or two feet below the surface. When the
alleys were cleansed, the surface only was scraped, and the rest
was left to exhale its poisonous particles. In many parts of
the city, the cellars contained water, which, becoming stagnant,
like so many Dead Seas, infected the atmosphere, offering all
the elements of nutrition to a malignant pestilence like the
cholera. There was not a sever in the city, which could have
corrected this last evil by draining the cellars. c
Under the impact of fire and plague the city staggered only
momentarily and then went on to add almost day by day to its bounding commercial growth. Even in the years of the fire and plague, the Common
Council and leading business men of the city were looking on ahead to the
railroad era and taking active steps to advance its arrival. In January
1850 subscriptions were called for to finance Missourifs first railroad,
the Pacific, and only two weeks were needed to raise $319,000. By 1855,
individual subscriptions to the stock of the railroads totalled nearly one
million d o l i a r s . 5 But other cities were outdoing St. Louis in their support of railroads and the best evidence of the vigor of the city was to be
found on her waterfront. There the year 1849 saw the arrival of 2,975
steamboats and barges possessing a tonnage in excess of 653,000 tons. The
estimated value of the leading articles received at the port in 1849 was
$10,087,000, a slight decline from the $10,288,000 of 18^8.

^Western Journal and Civilian (18U9), Vol. Ill, pp. 209-210,
Edwards, Richard and Hopewell, M., EdwardsT Great West
(i860), p. 406.
^Stevens, Walter B., The Centennial History of Missouri (1921),
p. 392.
^Missouri Republican, A Review of the Trade and Commerce of
St. Louis for the Year 1849, P. 102




20
The City and The Steamboat

The record of steamship arrivals and departures supplies an excellent business index for the years from 1840 to i860 not only for St.
Louis but for the "fertile localities on the Missouri, Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, of which the great 'metropolis of the West1 had become a
market".1
These few years were "the palmy days of steamboating - - - - when
railroads had not yet come into active competition". In the late fifties
steamboat service was being maintained at a high level but by 1866 was
showing definite signs of decline and within another ten years had dropped
precipitously. River traffic did not decline quite as sharply as steamboat
services. Some of the latter decline represents in part the replacement of
"stately steamboats" by "noisy towboats with consorts of clumsy barges".
The first steamboat, the General Pike, put into St. Louis in
l8l7. In 1830 there were only 278 arrivals at St. Louis and the "tardy,
expensive, and unsafe" keel boat and barge was still a factor in transporting merchandise.5 Six years later, however, the St. Louis City Directory
is speaking of the keel boat as something belonging to a past era and, by
1840 steamboat arrivals at St. Louis were in excess of 1700 annually.
In
1858 a contemporary described the waterfront of the city as a bustling,
crowded place.
"At her levee you see a row of mighty steamers of the
largest class, lying side by side for a mile in length, numbering from 150 to 300; some going out, others ever coming in;
some receiving and some discharging freight; and that levee for
a mile in length and 250 feet broad., piled with every variety
of merchandise the mind can recall.......
The event really marking the start of Mississippi steam navigation was the institution of a Louisville-New Orleans service in l8l6 by
Captain Henry W. Shreve in the Washington. This vessel was not the first
to make its way to New Orleans from the Ohio having been preceded by the
New Orleans five years earlier. But Captain Shreve challenged successfully
both on the river and in the courts, the monopoly of the river traffic
claimed by Fulton and his partners, owners of the New Orleans and backers
of the Ohio Steamboat Navigation C o m p a n y . ^ Thereafter, during the whole of
the steamboat era the Ohio was a major artery pouring the merchandise of
the east into the Mississippi Valley region and carrying back the furs,
foods, and other western products to the eastern communities or to eastern
ports for export. The Ohio River unfortunately possessed one serious impediment in the Louisville and Portland Canal around the "Falls of the
Ohio". In l8ll, before the canal was constructed, the New Orleans steamed
lEdwards, R. and Hopewell, M., Edwards1 Great West (i860), p. 391.
^Riley, Louise, Mississippi River Transportation (1924), p. 14.
3Keemle, Charles, St. Louis Directory, 1836-7, p. ii.
^Lippincott, I., Internal Trade of the United States (1916), p. 136.
5a Journey to the West, DeBow's Review (1858), Vol. 24, 1st series,
p. 256.
6cf. Hulbert, A. B., The Ohio River, A Course of Empire (1906),
pp. 330-335.



21
out of Pittsburgh for the lower Mississippi Valley but spent one month at
the falls at Louisville waiting for high water conditions to permit her to
proceed beyond. The canal eliminated this sort of obstacle but created two
substantial though lesser obstacles. One was the high cost of canal tolls.
Writing in 1848 J. Hall showed what canal tolls meant to this developing
trade. One instance cited was that of a 190 ton steamer passing back and
forth between Cincinnati and St. Louis. The vessel made the return trip in
approximately two weeks and in a year paid canal tolls of nearly $5/500, a
siim which was equal to about half the value of such a boat.
A second obstacle was created by the inadequate size of the canal.
Its smallness excluded boats of the best size frgm being used between upper
Ohio points and either St, Louis or New Orleans.
But Hall, critical as he was, found considerable satisfaction in
viewing the commerce flooding the waterways of the Mississippi System.
Viewed against the transportation of a later day the source of some of his
satisfaction seems a bit strange,
"The navigation of the Ohio below Cincinnati, and of the
Mississippi below St. Louis, is not obstructed by ice and extreme
low water, more than four months in the year; the navigation is
open eight months, during which time the boats between Cincinnati
and St. Louis may, and actually do run, and are actively
employed. "5
It is not difficult to understand how seriously the appearance of railroads,
particularly the through roads, was to affect the Ohio River traffic in the
very near future.
Shallow and irregular channels made Missouri River travel difficult. And swift currents added their hazard creating whirlpools that the
steamboats could not cross. In 1867, the Bishop was swamped in a strong
eddy; and sriags, and shoals were continually taking their toll of the river
boats. But difficulties did not stop the development of river traffic, in
fact, by offering large prizes to the successful, they offered their own
peculiar incentive to steamboatmen:
,!

When the steamboat and the prairie schooner were the only
means of transportation to the promised land of the great West;
when the gold hunter, the trapper and the adventurer were the
pioneers of civilization, hundreds of boats plied the waters of
the Missouri, going as far north as Fort Benton, 2500 miles from
St. Louis. Fortunes were made by a boat in a single trip.
Steamboating reached the summit of its prosperity about the time
of the breaking out of tho Civil War. More than 700 boats
lHall, J., The West (lS^S), p. 83.
Ibidf, p. 79; see also Allen, T., Commerce and Navigation Of the
Valley of the Mississippi (iBhS), p. 18.
3Hall, J., The West (l848), p.
^cf. Chittenden, H. M., History of Barly Steamboat Navigation on the
Missouri River (1903).
2




22
navigated the Missouri in those days, and more than 200 now
lie "buried in the sands between Kansas City and St. Louis silent reminders of the glory of other days.11
An even more flourishing trade developed on the Mississippi above
St. Louis. Above Keokuk on the very northeast corner of the state of
Missouri two rapids prevented further movement of the larger boats and
Keokuk in lesser degree but for something of the same reason became just as
St. Louis a transshipment point for some cargoes £ Over a thousand steamboats were coming annually to Keokuk's levees.^ In the fifties, freight
rates on the upper river ranged from four cents to six cents per ton-mile
for upstream shipments and slightly less for downstream.
The river offered its best to the trade southward from St. Louis,
particularly below the mouth of Ohio.^ Ana the prosperity of the South
in the two decades prior to the Civil War made tremendous use of the channel
as "money flowed northward in vast quantities". However sand bars developing in the mouth of the River provided a considerable hindrance to exports
through New Orleans and hurt St. Louis in the sixties when rail routes and
the Great Lakes were offering her northern neighbors very favorable channels
for export trade. A River Improvement Association was formed in St. Louis
in 1867 to secure aid from Congress in clearing the river mouth. Eads 1
famous jetties had pointed to the solution of the problem by 3875 "but not before the railroads had effected their serious diversion of traffic away from
the river.

3 "The Improvement of the Missouri River and Its Usefulness as a Traffic
Route", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
(1908), Vol. 31, p. 179.
2
cf. Hartsough, M.L., From Canoe to Steel Barge on the Upper Mississippi
(195*0, P. 87.
3The manifest of the U.S.S. Little Morgan in 1862 was probably typical
of the shallow draft boats operating in the tributary streams, in this case
the Des Moines River:
6
50
20
50
12
b
h
15

cases hardware
kegs nails
boxes castings
cases dry goods
cases hats
hhds. sugar
bbls. dried fruit
cases dry goods

2
6
12
6
10
50
k
14

hhds. sugar
kits mackeral
cases boots and shoes
aases dry goods
sacks c of fee
boxes soap
ca.ses dried fruit
boxes candles

20
8
14
2
10
2
k

crates woodenware
casks glassware
causes dry goods
boxes boots & shoes
bbls. salt
hhds. sugar
crates crockery

(Russell, C* E,, A-Raftirig on the Mississippi (1928), p. 26)
^Quick, H. and E., Mississippi Steamboatin* (1926), pp. 175-6.
5Reedy, W. M., St. Louis, The Future Great in L. P. Powell's
Historic Towns of the Western States (l90l).
6soraghan, Catherine V., The History of St. Louis, 1865-1876
(1956), pp. 111-12.




23
Excessive terminal costs at New Orleans also supplied another
handicap for the river route. In considering the relations developing between the rail and river routes in this period, L. U. Reavis saw both excessive terminal charges and excessive profit margins as dangers which
might hurt the river traffic.
"Terminal charges at New Ox^leans may have to be reduced,
if the Mississippi River is to become the highway for the products
of the West; but if St. Louis can furnish at all times an advantageous and reliable market, if its merchants are content with a
small profit on a large aggregate, instead of a large profit on a
small volume of business, and if they unite on direct importation
via New Orleans, with the view of reducing export freight chargos,
they will command the trade of the Mississippi Valley and of the
northwest equally with the southwest.
Other cities had turned more rapidly to railroad transportation than had
St. Louis so these threats were of particular concern to the city if she was
to obtain the full measure of her potential growth.
From 1840 to i860 steamboat arrivals not only record the flourishing conmiereial activities of "the Metropolis of the West" but reveal in the
origins from which the vessels came, the wide trade areas lying tributary
to the port.
Steamship Arrivals at St. Louis From
Designated Sections of the Mississippi
RiVGr System For Selected Years^
Lower
Upper
Mississippi Mississippi
Year Total
E Ivor
Eiver
1845
1850
i860
1865

2,105
2,879
3,454
2,769

250
301
767
709

6V7
635
1,524
826

I
Illinois Missouri
Ohio
Eiver Others
E iver
Eiver
298
788
544
457

!1

249
390
269
389

406
493
277
165

255
272
73
223a

a

47 of these 223 arrivals were reported as coming from the White
River; 71 from the Cumberland; 4l from the Arkansas; and 64 from the
Tennessee.
Source: Date for 3.865 from St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange Annual
Report of 1865, p. 15; other years from Lippincott, I,, Internal
Trade of the United States (l91o), p. 136.
iReavis, L. U«, The Railway and River Systems of the City of St. Louis
(1879), P. 10.
2
For data on various other years between 1839 and 1851 see "Commerce of
St. Louis"f DeBowTs Commercial Review. Vol. 1, pp. 79, 148; "Progress of Our
Commerce and Commercial Towns", DeBowfs Commercial Review, Vol. 7, p. 44-5;
Annual Review of Trade and Commerce of St. Louis, issues of 1848 and 1852 at
p. 13 and issue of 1849 at p. 10; and Hall, J., The West (1848), pp. 97-102,
223, 224, 251.




24
Since the size of vessels operating above and below St. Louis
differed materially it is not possible to make definite comparisons of the
relative importance of these portions of the river system. In spite of
its smaller vessels it is obvious that the Upper Mississippi was a very important trade area of the city. The increase from 1850 to i860 was particularly marked and even after suffering the inroads made by rail lines the
total arrivals in 1865 were almost one third larger than in 1850. It is
noteworthy, too, that arrivals from the lower river were still well maintained in 1865 with 707, compared with 767 in i860 and 301 in 1850. The
steady losses on the Ohio River after 1850 testify in large part to the influence of the rail network built up in these years in the area east ©f the
Mississippi. For instance, the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio to St.
Louis in 1857 created a paralleling route and offered a competing service
the steamboat found difficult to meet. However, in the first year after the
war there were still forty-five steamers regularly plying between St. Louis
and Ohio River points compared with fifty-five for the Lower Mississippi,
thirty-four split between the Arkansas, White, Cumberland and Tennessee
Rivers and sixteen to Illinois River ports. In numbers, however, the
Missouri River service with seventy-one vessels was largest of all.
The full size of the tremendous river traffic can be very clearly
appreciated when it is recognized that the vessel tonnage on the Mississippi
River System exceeded the total British Empire tonnage. In the early
forties British Empire shipping tonnage was approximately 83,000, Atlantic
Seaboard^tonnage was 76,000, and Mississippi River System tonnage was

126,000/

In 1642 New Orleans alone had a registered tonnage greater than
the total Atlantic Seaboard t o n n a g e . 3
As a rival of the Great Lakes the River System, however, was
forced to take second place by 1855. As the following figures show the
total tonnage on the Great Lakes in 1840 was well under half of that on the
rivers of the Mississippi Valley but slightly in excess by 1855-

Year

Total Vessel Tonnage**
Miss issippi
Rivor System
Great Lakes

182+0
182+5
1850
1855
i860

2*7, OoO
82+, 610
182}., 1+30
33)+, 590

117,070
172,12+0
275,190
316,02+0
33^,950

Source: Lippincott, I., Internal Trade of the United States
P. 149.

(1916),

^St.Louis Merchants1 Exchange Annual Report of 1866, p. 21.
2
Hulbert, A.B., The Ohio River, A Course of Empire ( 1 9 0 6 ) , pp. 3 3 6 - 7 3lbid., p. 338.
4A Considerable portion of the Lake tonnage and a much smaller part of
the Mississippi tonnage was not steam-powered. For 1854 steam tonnage on
the Great Lakes was reported as 9 4 , 3 2 6 , less than one third of the total
tonnage reported. See Stevens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth City,
1764-1909




(1909),

p.

365-

25
The Great Lakes assumed leadership in the years between 1850 and
1855 and although Lake traffic to a limited extent came from or went to St.
Louis the rising Lake tonnage spelled increasing competition for the River
on east and west bound traffic.
Walter B. Stevens, a usually sympathetic chronicler of St. Louis
affairs, points out a strange slowness on the part of the business men of
the City to invest in steamboats and then a later, rather rapid entry into
steamboating as a business venture:
"St. Louis business men were slow to go into steamboating
as a business. Cincinnati and Louisville were far ahead in the
tonnage owned or controlled. Not until steamboats had been combing to the St. Louis levee a dozen years did St. Louis capital
venture. As late as 1833 not more than two or three boats
actually were owned in St. Louis. But when this conservative
city awoke to the possibilities of river transportation, other
steamboat centers were quickly left behind. In I85O St. Louis
owned or controlled 21*,955 tons; Cincinnati, 16,906 tons; Louisville, 14,820 tons. Three years later St. Louis had increased
steamboat holdings to 45,441 tons. Cincinnati had decreased to
10,191, and Louisville to 14,166 tons."1
By 1845, St. Louisans had close to five million dollars invested
in steamboats and St. Louis owned or controlled a greater vessel tonnage
than any city on the river except New Orleans.2 With a capital invested in
vessels in the neighborhood of twenty-five million dollars New Orleans investors could still regard St. Louis ownership as a relatively minor interest in the river investment.5
Nearing the end of the great steamboat era on Mississippi waters
St. Louis had overcome her slow start - perhaps unfortunately in view of the
coming decline of steamboating. In 1854, the city had 48,557 steam tonnage
enrolled at the port as against 101,487 tons for New York and 57,174 tons
for New Orleans. The entire steam tonnage of the Great Lakes was 94,526 and
St. Louis ownership was greater than the combined tonnage of Philadelphia
and Baltimore.
By 1867, the St. Louis steam tonnage had grown to 106,000
tons with a carrying capacity of 186,000 tons and a value of $10,376,000.5

^Stevens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (1909)
P. 347.
2
Shoemaker, F. C., Missouri and Missourians, Vol. I, p. 485. (1943)
3cf. Hall, J., The West (1848), p. 171: tonnage registered in New
Orleans is given as 80,993; St. Louis 14,725; Cincinnati 12,025;
Pittsburgh 10,107; Louisville 4,6l8; and Nashville 3,810.
^Stevens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (1909),
P. 365.
5 S t .Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1866, p. 33: see also
Waterhouse, Sylvester, The Resources of Missouri (1869), P.




26
Commerce and Industry

The rivers made St. Louis the center for a large and varied trade
hut their contribution was supplemented in a very important fashion by the
overland trails.
"Although practically all of the overland trails started at
Independence or Westport, St. Louis was so located that all
traffic which originated along these trails or was destined to
pass over these trails had to pass through St. Louis. Goods intended for movement over these trails was either carried up the
Missouri River to Independence or Westport by water or overland
from St. Louis.
The overland trails may be said to have played a dual function. First, they added greatly to the possibilities of marketing goods, as St. Louis was the real outfitting place for practically all the overland journeys. In this way St. Louis' market area included to some extent at least, all that area tributary to the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon Trail, and the Mormon
Trail. Secondly, the overland trails functioned to extend the
productive hinterland beyond the area which was accessible by
water transportation, i.e., beyond the area of the drainage
basins of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Of course
the products which could be transported eastward over these
trails to points whence they could be carried on by water were
limited to those of high value per unit bulk and weight. This
limited the resources almost entirely to furs and gold."1
In 1840 the combined receipts and shipments at the port had a
dollar value in excess of thirty million.^ And by the time of the Civil
War this figure had risen to the neighborhood of two hundred millions^
equal to about one-third of the total foreign trade of the United States
and greater than the combined trade of Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling,
Nashville, New Albany and Memphis.
^Marshall, Willis, W., Geography of the Early Port of St. Louia
(1932), p. 47.
^Among the more romantic, and incidentally profitable, trade stories
of the last century is that of the trade with Santa Fe. Using a land route
of over 2000 miles the Santa Fe traders supplied Missouri with specie,
mules and skins and took baok manufactured articles particularly domestic
cotton goods. Whiskey also was an important item. It was bought from
Missouri distilleries at forty cents a gallon and being diluted with an
equal part of water then sold for three dollars in Taos. (Sauer, Carl 0.,
The Geography of the Oz-rk Highland of Missouri (1920), pp. 133-4). In
1847, reports value the Santa Fe trade for St.Louis at $500,000 (Hall, J.,
The West (1848), pp. 256-8). See also: deLiniere, Virginia, The Santa Fe
Trail (1923); Buckingham, J.S., The Eastern and Western States (l842);
Sauer, Carl 0., The Geography of the Ozark Highland of Missouri (1920),
pp. 133 ff; W.P.A, Writers Program, Missouri (1941), pp. 76-9.
^Lippincott reports a figure of $35,000,000 for 1842 and $200,000,000
for i860 (Internal Trade of the United States (1916), p. 225-6); and Helen
D. Williams reports $50,000,000* for 1840 and *$120,000,000 for 1855 (Factors
in the Growth of St.Louis from 1840 to i860 (1934), p. 51.)



27
The inbound traffic to the city consisted of two quite different
groups of produdts. One coming from eastern markets consisted of a variety
of manufactured articles moving to St. Louis for consumption in the city
and nearby areas or for resale in the southwest, west and northwest. The
other came from the immediate hinterland of the city which supplied agricultural, mineral, forest and animal products. Surplus crops moved from
farms to supply the local city market and for reshipment to the south and
east and to foreign countries.
The major raw materials and foodstuffs coming into the warehouses
of the city were lead, wheat, tobacco, hog products (bacon, lard, and pork)
and hemp. The approximate value of these and other important products
brought into the port by river in 1845 were as follows:"^
Bacon
Bagging
Barley
Corn
Flour
Hemp
Hides

$175,000
62,000
12,000
30,000
92,000
248,000

110,000

Lead
Lard
Pork
Tobacco
Tobacco
Wheat
Whiskey

$222,000
127,000
125,000
520,000 (leaf)
103,000 (mfrd)

680,000

203,000

Wheat and tobacco stand out above the others with hemp and lead
following. Combined hog products (bacon, lard and pork), however, reached
a total second only to wheat.
The importation of 30,000 barrels of whiskey in addition to some
1900 barrels of brandy might suggest that the 30,000 adult males residing
in St. Louis were topers of no mean ability. However, if so accused, they
could advance the same explanation as was made for residents of our
National Capital when they were similarly charged a century later - visitors
or residents of outlying areas received a goodly portion of the Imports of
the city.
In addition to the foregoing commodities there were sizable
receipts of molasses, oats, barley, potatoes, salt, sugar, cheese and
lesser receipts of other staple products. In 1845 the fur trade wo3 still
large and buffalo robes, furs and pelts brought to the city for transshipment east, probably possessed an annual value close to $350,000.

IV alue estimated by applying prices current in 1848 (reported in
DeBov's Commercial Review of the South and West, Yol. 7, pp. 180-1) to
volume of receipts reported in Chambers and Enapp, Annual Review of The
Trade and Commerce of Saint Louis, 1848.
2

cf., Williams, HJ)., Factors in the Growth of St. Louis From
1840 to i860 (1934), pp. 62-3; and Chittenden, H.M., The American Fur
Trade of the Far West (1902), Yol. II, p. 8l8.




28
In large part, furs moved to the New York market principally by
way of the Ohio River or the Great Lakes in the early days. In the steamboat era the river route via New Orleans was extensively used. Chittenden,
in his authoritative work on the fur trade, da.tes the outstanding period of
the trans-Mississippi fur trade as 1803-1843. Depletion of nearby trapping
grounds, the flood of immigration, and declining values for beaver skins
mark the end of the period.1
In its heyday the fur trade brought a very considerable trade in
cloth, blankets and various fabrics through St. Louis as trade goods used
by the fur companies. Of even greater importance, the profits mode in the
fur trade were enormous and to a certain extent supplied capital fo£ the
varied, later development of the commerce and industry of the city.4"
Hemp and tobacco, the two great staples of Missouri, moved down
the Missouri or along wagon roads to the city. Wheat and flour came from
Missouri, Illinois and Iowa.
#

The major portion of the large receipts of lead arrived in the
city from southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois with some considerable quantities coming in by wagon from southeastern Missouri.^ This
commodity had been one of the earliest "money crops" found by the early
settlers.
First extraction was free lead dug almost from the surface of
the ground. Ste. Genevieve on the river below St. Louis was an important
lead market and fur trading center before 1770 and Missouri found in lead
her second most valuable "export". With the rise of St, Louis the center
of lead trading moved up the r i v e r . 5 Largo scale mining developed after
1850 but tlxe importance of lead to St. Louis was at its greatest before
that date.0
Chittenden, H.M., The American Fur Trade of the Far West (1902),
pp. 3-8, 32-40, 365, 8l8^S22.
^Buckingham, J.S., The Eastern and Western States of America (l342),
Vol. Ill, p. 144.
3Western Journal (1850), Vol. IV, p. 51.
4
cf., Schafer, Joseph, The Wisconsin Lead Region (1932).
^Thwaites, R. G., Notes on Early Lead Minos, Wisconsin Historical
Collections, Vol. 13 (1893), pp. 271 ff.
^On June 2, l84l, the Missouri Republican reported that the receipts
of lead in the first two months after navigation opened were worth $423,640.
This was from the upper Mississippi and much of it had. been forwarded to
eastern markets. On December 1, 1842, the Missouri Republican, quoting
from the Galena Gazette reported that the product of the mines in 1842 had
been worth almost $1,000,000 which was a large amount considering the low
price the article had borne.
From 1840 to 1843, the imports of load from Galena rose from 20,000,000
pounds to 39,000,000 pounds. March 27, 1847 the Missouri Republican pointed
out that in l84l, 463,400 pigs of lead had been received from Galena, ond
in 1846, 672,420 pigs of lead had come from that point. In 1847 the amount
imported was 749,12o pigs while in 1849 it had decreased to 390,293 pigs.
From 1842 to 1853 the upper Mississippi lead trade amounted to 7,103,448
pigs worth $1o,o57,988. On January 3, 1853, the Missouri Republican called
attention to the fact tha.t a doc line in the upper Mississippi lead trade
had been perceptible since 1847. After 1847 there was a decline in the
actual output of upper Mississippi lead. The shipments in St.Louis in 1857
were less than half*of what they had been in 1847. (Williams, Helen D.,
Factors in the Growth of St.Louis from 1840 to i860 (1934), pp. 72-74.)



29
Commerce in lead "brought St. Louis one of its early industries.
In 1847, a shot tower, one of the largest In the country, was built. The
tower made of brick and standing 186 feet high was capable of producing
daily twenty-five tons of shot and buckshot.
Other manufacturing plants which were also results of the trade
in lead produced, after l8l4, white lead, in which St. Louis was to become
a leading producer in the latter part of the century, and after 1852 sheet
lead and lead pipe.1 By 1854 the whole of the Mississippi Valley was being
supplied with lead pipe from St. Louis "at prices with which other points
could not compete".
As Michigan and Wisconsin became important logging centers
lumber moved to St. Louis for reshipment to New Orleans, the eastern seaboard, and to Europe. This reversed a movement that had been typical for
the years 1820 to 1840 when the St. Louis area was importing pine lumber
from Pittsburgh. Much of the lumber was milled at upper river points such
as Galena and Dubuque and rafted to St. Louis. One by-product of this
trade was the growth of an important furniture center at St. Louis after
1848 when immigration brought a considerable number of German cabinet
makers to the city.
For lead, lumber and the staple agricultural products St. Louis
was the leading market for a wide area in the two decades before the Civil
War. The St. Louis Directory of 1840 comments that the city served as the
commercial center for "Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, a large part of Illinois,
and a portion of Arkansas".
A record of the waterways on which commodity receipts of St. Louis
were originated shows not only the importance of the various rivers but, in
general outline, the various areas marketing in St. Louis.
For a number
of commodities the following tabulation lists under the name of each river
the percentage of the total received at St. Louis which originated on the
designated river:

IShoemaker, F.C., Missouri and Missourians (1943), pp. 560-561.
2cf., Stevens, Walter B 0 , St. Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909
(1909), PP. 275-276.




30
Commodity

Illinois
Eiver

Barley
Beans
Bark, tanning

4.1
20.8

Corn
Cheese
Cooperage
Coffee
Flour
Fruit, dried
Glass
Hides
Hogs
Hemp
Leather
Lead
Molasses
Rails
Oats
Onions
Oysters
Pork
Paper
Potatoes
Sugar

39,0
a
34.9

Salt
Salt
Wheat
Whiskey
Tobacco
Tobacco

Missouri
River

-

22.5
4.9
a
16.2
15.1
a
4.9
-

-

26.3
5.8
16.2
51.4
-

.
i

15,5

a
7.9

47.2
40.8
a
1.8

85.4
71.3

54.5
3.8
45.6
100.0
71.8
4.7
^3.4
35.9
1.4
28.4
54.9
65.6
21.3
94.1
5.5
a
12.4
1.2
98.8
100.0
23.0
a
72.9
94.0
a
47.7
4.3 " '
44.3
1.2
1.0
81.7
100.0
6,5 ......
a
16.5

-

Mississippi
River

-

9.9
CI.

8o.o
47-5

100.0
-

•41.5
54.4
19.5
31.1

Ohio
Eiver

Total Received
at St. Louis

10.0

62,080 sacks
33,156 sacks
100.0
( 5*276 sacks
(
12 tons
484,192
27,246"boxes
"95'.'8'"
3.0
98,141 pes.
104,467 sacks
1.0
201,052 bbls.
17.8 '
17,887 bbls.
98.2
21,269 boxes
a
101,440
20,435
62,874 bales
82.4
14,666 rolls
442,218 pigs
53,554 bbls.
77.0
68,967 kegs
464,062 sacks
a
27,007 sacks
a
36.1
6,291 pkgs.
75,864 bbls.
98.8
68,969 bdls.
2,0
72,224
104,974 ffigj
(•bags
(boxes
203,696 sacks
100.0
69,832 bbls.
1.4
1,078,503 sacks"'
49,870 bbls.
4.3
a
10,102 hhds.
:
10,528 boxes
19.6
-

a

Less than 1 percent.

Important portions of a variety of receipts such as beans, corn,
flour, hides and oats came to the city from the Illinois Eiver "but that
river was the most important trade channel for only pork and wheat. Down
the Missouri came eighty percent of the receipts of tobacco and ninety-five
percent of the hemp. The percentages in the column under the Mississippi
Eivor show at a glance that for two-thirds of the receipts the largest
origins were on that river. By way of the Ohio came a number of important
manufactured products.
The record of commodity shipments going out of St. Louis in the
two decades before the Civil War reveals the essential character of the
city as a commercial, center, acting in large part only as an intermediary
in the movement of goods from origin to its immediate hinterland or to the
far distant markets of the West.




31
From reports of the Overland Dispatch Company the St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange estimated the total St. Louis freight going to the territories in 1865 as follows:
To Plattsmouth
Leavenworth City
Santa Fe
St. Joseph
Nebraska City
Atchison
Government freight

3,000,000 pounds

6,000,000

8,000,000
10,000,000

15,000,000
25,000,000
50,000,000
117,000,000 pounds

In addition there was an important trade with Ft. Benton, 2500
miles away, amounting to 6,000,000 lbs. - total commerce with Montana was
probably in the neighborhood of 13,000,000 lbs.1
Comparison of the estimated value of commodity receipts at St.
Louis with the approximate value of outgoing shipments ^reveals that in 1845
the two were in close balance for many commodities.

Bacon
Bagging
Barley
Corn
Flour
Hemp
Hides
Lead
Lard
Pork
Tobacco (leaf)
Tobacco (mfrd)
Wheat
Whiskey

Receipts
$175,000
62,000
12,000
30,000
92,000
21*8,000
110,000

222,000
127,000
125,000
520,000
103,000
660,000
203,000

Shipments

$

306,000

119,000
0
20,000
862,000
(not reported)
89,000
1,500,000
467,000
402,000
508,000
103,000
0
0

The figures reveal some evidence of processing or manufacture for
bacon, lard, pork, bagging and flour for which the value of shipments exceed
receipts. Hog receipts, largely from Missouri and Illinois were of material
size during these years. In i860 reports of the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange show about forty percent of hog receipts being delivered by or
originating on Illinois railroads; eighteen percent originated on the upper

^St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Bo port of 1866, p. 35.
2

In deriving these figures the same unit prices are applied to figures
for receipts and shipments which wore reported in records of the period in
physical units. As a result, the dollar values are only very rough
appr ox ima t i bns.




32
Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers; twenty percent on Missouri railroads and the rest from unidentified sources.-1The development of pork packing was relatively new and appears as
one of the early processing fie M s in which St. Louis made a start toward
the manufacturing activity that was to "become important after the Civil War.
"The decade, 1840-1850, marks the rise of St. Louis as an
important packing point, Hitherto, that city, so advantageously
situated at the place on the Mississippi where all the Missouri,
Illinois^ and upper Mississippi River traffic could "be reshipped
to larger boats for the completion of the southward journey, had
been content to derive its profits from its commissions. Ship
merchants were growing rich from Illinois farmers, and were constantly urging the latter to build up their own town of Alton as
the competitor of St. Louis. By 1845, however, the 'back country*
of Missouri began to furnish hogs and cattle in increasing numbers
and the packing business rapidly grew to such an extent that the
city soon became a good market, not only for Missouri, but also
for large numbers of Illinois hogs, which, if the older conditions
had remained, would have gone to Alton."2
By 1849-50 over 115,000 hogs were being slaughtered in the city^
and East St. Louis was also making its start in the packing industry. It
waBy however, far overshadowed by the west side of the river until the
National Stockyards were built on the Illinois side in 1873In the foregoing table it will be noted that 680,000 bushels of
wheat were received at the port and none reported as shipped out, while
flour shipments were in excess of $800,000. The repeal of the Corn Laws in
England in 1846, the markedly growing dependence of England on foreign food
supplies, and the movement of grain production westward as industrialization increased in the Atlantic states all made grain handling through
lQrigin of St. Louis Hog Receipts, 1866
17,969
11,266
8,570
10,474
30,215
47,926
12,810
36,765
117
41,510
217,622
1
(St.Louis Merchants Exchange, Annual Report of 1866, p. 64)
2
Clemen, Rudolf A., The American Livestock and Meat Industry (1923),
p. 105.
3shoemaker, F.C*, Missouri and Missourians (1942), Vol. II, p. 55^.
^cf. Brink, McDonough & Co., (edj, History of St. Clair County (l88l),
pp. 303-4.




Upper Mississippi River
Illinois River
Missouri River
Ohio and Mississippi R«R•
Chicago, Alton & St. Louis R.R.
Chicago, Alton & Torre Haute R.R,
Pacific R.Re
North Missouri R.R.
Iron Mountain R«R.
Other sources

33
St. Louis grow to sizable proportions before the Civil War brought its serious interruptions. However, milling increased also, with the result that
the bulk of grain received at St. Louis was milled there.1 In l84l the city
had only two flour mills and these were of small capacity. In ten years
both the number and size increased sufficiently to forecast the leading place
held by the city in flour milling in i860. With its increase to nineteen
mills in 1851 and subsequent growth in the decade the city ranked with
Rochester, Minnesota, as the leading flour manufacturing center of the wholecountry.^ At the same time, across the river, an early milling industry
which had retailed flour in sacks in St. Louis was expanding in similar
fashion and adding materially to the milling capacity of the "St. Louis Industrial A r e a " . ^ The figures for 1870, approximately typical of the previous
decade - show 6,638,253 bushels of wheat being received at the city and
636,562 bushels, or ten percent, being reshipped. Barley was the only other
grain where outgoing shipments were a small proportion of receipts. From
one half to three-fourths of the receipts of corn, oats, and rye were reshipped.
From 1855 to l8?0 the grain trade of the city foil on troubled
days. The Civil War. the change from handling grain in sacks to bulk handling for barge movements, and the lack of elevator capacity presented serious
difficulties.5
These troubles or problems were passed but they left aftereffects injurious to the place of the town in the nation's grain trade.
There were not three problems here but really only one, namely, the building
up of the Mississippi River to the Gulf £,s a main channel for grains moving
to eastern ports and to foreign markets.0 The Great Lakes and eastern railroads offered routes that would finish the river and markedly reduce the importance of St. Louis as handlers of grain unless a successful transition
were made from the too costly steamboat handling.
The opening of the Illinois-Michigan Canal in 1848 had already
presented one challenge to St. Louis. As a result of the canal traffic the
Illinois River Valley enjoyed a tremendous boom but the large granaries of
the valley turned their traffic toward Chicago. Previously they had found
their best outlet by the Mississippi but now grain moved by the cheaper
northern route and, as the middleman, Chicago benefited. '
iMissouri Republican, Annual Review (l848), pp. 3-6.
^Kuhlmann, Charles B., The Development of the Flour-Milling Industry
In The United States (1929).
3Brink, McDonough & Co. (ed.), History of St. Clair County (l88l),
p. 348 ff.
**The relation of receipts to shipments in 1870 were as follows:
Corn
Oats
Rye
Barley
Received (bu.) 4,708,838
4,519,510
210,542
778,518
Shipped (bu.) 3,637,060
3,144,744
100,254
70,451
^Fite, E. D., Social and Industrial Conditions in the Worth During
The Civil War (1910), pp. 66-7.
6 0 f # Hartsough, M. L«, From Canoe to Steel Barge on tho Upper
Mississippi (1934), p* 186.
7Cole, A. C., Era of the Civil War (1919), p. 31.




38
The Civil War chocked experiments with "barge handling of arain on
the river for some very imp or "han't years as the railroad network eastward was
filling in and "bringing to Chicago more favorable routes to the east.
"In 1866- Chicago controlled 76,000,000 "bushels of grain,
St. Louis but 13,000,000 bushels, because Chicago could ship
grain to New York from five to ten cents cheaper than could
St. Louis ... Charles Orthwein chartered a steamboat and, five
barges to ship 12,000 bushels of wheat in bulk form to New
York by way of New Orleans. Since the cargo arrived in perfect
condition, the experiment disproved the theory that grain in
bulk form sent by water would suffer from temperature and
moisture".
Before the Civil War many doubts existed in the minds of St. Louis
grain men as to the feasibility of shipping in bulk to eastern ports. These
doubts could only be removed, as they finally were, by experimentation. In
this experiment, facilities in the port for bulk storage were required but
were not supplied until 1865.
The need for grain elevators was recognized
before i860 and concerted efforts by St. Louis grain dealers were being
undertaken prior to the Civil War.5 The St. Louis Grain Elevator Company
was chartered in 1863 but had serious trouble in raising the required
$500,000 of capital. It was not until two years later that the city actually
saw its first elevator in operation. Then when the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company was organized in the following year to use tugs and barges
it ran into considerable troubles with two inadequacies of the river - one
old, and one relatively new. The winter closing of stretches of the Mississippi with ice between St. Louis to Cairo was a severe handicap and later
forced the company to build its own elevator at Belmont below the mouth of
the Ohio. The second handicap was found in the mouth of the Mississippi.
Eads1 jetties did not solve the problem of silting until after 1875 ^nd the
lack of a good outlet at the mouth of the river allowed barge handling of
grain to grow very slowly. However, a start was made in 1866 and some ^ows
of ten barges with steam tugs made the trip to New Orleans in six days, ' By
1883 these handicaps and the rather hesitant experimentation were things of
the past and the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company had thirteen towboats .and ninety-eight barges in the service. With each barge capable of
loading lk-00 tons and a towboat able to handle five barges on good stages of
water, a single tow would take down fourteen hundred tons of grain.5 Shipments (by all carriers) of wheat from St. Louis stayed relatively small until
I878. The annual average from I867 to 1870 was 8,600,000 bushels; from 1871
to 1877 slightly uader 1,700,000 bushels; and irx the following ten years
6,950,000 bushels.5
In addition to the lead and foodstuffs processed in the city and
shipped to its trade area, in the West, St.Louis served as the entrepot thru
which a variety of manufactured products passed to the large trade area tributary to the Mississippi River System - the area from which it drew the
great volume of raw materials.
lSoraghan. ^Catherine1
St.Louis Merchants
3stevens, Walter B.,
pp. 66b, 667-668.
^St.Louis Merchants'
^Elliot, R,S., Notes
c
D
See Appendix B,
2




V., The History of St Louis. 1865-1876, (19256) p. 315
Exchange, imnual Report of 1865> P*
St.Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (1909),
Exchange, Annual Report of 1866, p. 38.
Taken in Sixty Years (1885), p* 298.

—

35
In general manufactured articles and luxury foods came to the growing metropolis from eastern sources. Philadelphia and Baltimore were its
lo ading manufacturing and wholesale centers supplying a variety of manufactured and semimanufactured products.1 Among a long list of receipts in 1845
are 1590 tons of cast^ings, 24,000 "boxes of glass., 3800 tons of iron and
22,000 kegs of nails.d Pittsburgh was also sharing in this traffic as well
as New York and Boston. The April 1, 1840 issue of the short-lived daily
newspaper, The Pennant, advertised for sale a lot of one hundred kegs of
Pittsburgh white lead, and another lot of nails from the same city. Soap end
other products originating in Boston aDpeared among the advertisements. And
it was obvious the St. Louisan did not wholly forego "imported" luxuries for
notice was given of the arrival of one hundred cases of pickled oysters from
Baltimore.
The Ohio Eiver served as the major trade channel for these products. As shown in the tabulation on a foregoing page presenting commodity
receipts at St. Louis, that river moved to the city considerable amounts of
tanning bark, cheese, dried fruit, glass, leather, nails, oysters, paper,
salt, and manufactured tobacco. In addition to these products cloth, blankets, clothing, boots and shoos and a variety of drygoods came to the city
for its own citizens and for reshipment to Santa Fe, to the far upper
Missouri and to the whole are a of the middle west.
Wholesale drygoods and grocery companies wore the nucleus around
which the economic structure of the city was "built. They were in the opin-^
ion of the Missouri Republican of 1856 "the heaviest business of the c i t y . " 5
By the middle fifties thirty firms were doing a regular wholesale drygoods
business. Sixteen of these; handled boots and shoes and in 1855 were credited with sales of two end a half million dollars.^" At this same time fiftytwo wholesale grocery firms were enjoying the same large profits and rapidly
growing business.5 Annual sales were in the neighborhood of twenty-two
million^dollars and had been growing with great rapidity in the past
dec ade,^
^Atherton, L., The Pioneer Merchant in Mid-America (1939), p. 66.
^Missouri Republican, Annual Review (1848)
^Missouri Republican, Annual Review of the Commerce of St.Louis For
The Year 1S56.
~~
%bid.
^"When Carlos S. Greeley started a wholesale grocery in St.Louis he put
in no stock of liquor. The "dry grocery" house of Greeley & Gale made money
from the beginning. It grew into one of the institutions of the city. The
profits helped to build the Kansas Pacific Railroad, the line from Sedalia
to Warsaw, the St.Louis and Illinois Railroad-.; they were represented in the
capital of the National Bank of Coiimercc and the Boatmen's; they helped to
establish the Belcher Sugar refinery, the St.Louis Cotton Factory, the
Crystal City Plate Glass Company. They contributed generously to Drury
College, to Lindenwood Seminary, to the Mercantile Library, to Washington
University". (Stevens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth Cityy 1764-1909
(1909), p. 659.)
6stevens, Walter 3., St. Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909
(1909), p. 663.




36
In 1840 St. Louis merchants were not only supplying groceries and
hardware for the areas along the borders of the Mississippi and Missouri but
were finding important markets in "interior" Iowa and Nebraska and in far
distant Washington, Utah, Wyoming and California.1 By the middle fifties
the Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri markets were tremendously more valuable as immigration added greatly to their population and "Kentucky,
Tennessee and Arkansas are beginning to turn their attention to St. Louis a.s
their legitimate market for Dry Goods, as well as Groceries, Provisions,
Flour and Rope and Bagging".
As the Civil War approached to take its severo
toll of St. Louis the city was furnishing groceries and hardware to virtually all Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Indian nations and the plains,
Utah and to parts of Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas.
Review of the trade in wheat, hogs end lead revealed that these
products brought to St. Louis three of its early industries - flour milling,
slaughtering and lead manufacture. A number of other beginnings were made
prior to 1870 but as late as the outbreak of the Civil War only a few enterprises in the city had moved beyond the "craft" stage in which one or two
proprietors and a journeyman worker or two made up the shop. Certainly the
"factory system" can be found only in a few lines of manufacture.
"St. Louis cannot be said to have possessed any industries
in the strict sense of the term prior to the year 1850, and perhaps nothing that was comparable to an industrial system until
the beginning of the Civil War period, l86l. For a great number
of years, St. Louis was satisfied with a lucrative shipping business which its strategic geographic location brought it. Then
too, the role of merchant supply center for the far West was very
attractive. Pork packing and milling were two important and
flourishing enterprises which due to their demand for barrels and
kegs fostered a thriving cooperage business.
In 1840 with a population of 16,000 the city had 214 retail establishments with a capital of nearly four million dollars and twenty-five
commission houses with a capital of nearly one million dollars.^ In comparison, ten years later the total capital employed in manufacture of products
was only slightly over four million dollars and the capital invested in what
can be classified as factory production was slightly over two and one-half
millions.
It is very apparent in accounts of the time that in the decade
of the forties commercial interests dominated in a very definite fashion the
economic affairs of the city.7 And where manufacturing is described, it
^Buckingham, J.S., The Eastern and Western States (1842), pp. 55-6.
^Missouri Republican, Annual Review of the Commerce of St.Louis For
The Year 1856.
^Missouri Republican, Annual Review of The Trade and Commerce of St.Louis
For The Year 1858.
^Shoemaker, F.C., Missouri and Mlssourlans, (1943), Vol. II, p. 555.
5DeBowTs Commercial Review, Cities of The Mississippi and Ohio,
Yol. I, p. 14?.
6Adapted from report of Missouri Republican on "Productive Industry",1851.
7cf. Keemle, Charles, St.Louis Director:/, 1840-1, p. vi;
Hall, J., The West (1848), p. 247;
Buckingham, J.S., The Eastern and Western States of America (1842),
Yol. Ill, p. 126.
Missouri Republicans Issue of January 1, 1842.
Edwards, R. and Hopewell, M., Edwards1 Great West (i860), pp. 376-7.



appears very commonly to be a shop handicraft system of production. The
earliest organization of manufacturing interests is found in the Mechanics
Exchange and the roster of membership in 1839 is very revealing. Members
are Identified by trade and there is an obvious domination of the crafts —
carpenters, founders, cabinetmakers, tailors, shipbuilders, machinists,
bakers, coopers, gunsmith, carriagemaker, upholsterers, blacksmiths, and
so on.1 The Exchange was not a labor organization but a representative body
of "manufacturers" including a number of names that were prominent in the
later industrial and commercial history of the city. It is clear that much
of the "manufacture" of 1840 consisted of little more than the service trades
found today in the cobblers shop or the blacksmith shop, or in the latter fs
modern counterpart, the garage. For instance in the following contemporary
description by Edwards and Hopewell it must be recognized that the "boot-andshoe shops that manufacture" and many of the other "manufactories" were oneman shops.
"At this time (l84l) there were in St.Louis, two foundries;
twelve stove- grate, tin, and copper manufactories; twenty-seven
blacksmiths and housesmiths; two white-load, red-lead and litharge
manufactories, one castor-oil factory, twenty cabinet and chair
factories; two establishments for manufacturing linseed-oil; three
factories for the making of lead-pipe; fifteen tobacco and cigar
manufactories; eleven coopers and nine hatters; twelve saddle,
harness and trunk manufactories; fifty-eight boot-and-shoe shops
that manufacture; six grist-mills; six breweries, a glass-cutting
establishment; a Britannia (tableware metal) manufactory; a
carpet manufactory, and an oil-cloth factory. There was also a
sugar refinery; a chemical and fancy-soap manufactory; a pottery
and stoneware manufactory; an establishment for cutting and
beautifying marble; two tanneries; and several manufactories of
ploughs and other agricultural implements.
In Its January 1, 1842 issued the Missouri Republican shows a more
proper modesty in Its description of St. Louis industries, listing only
twelve stove-grate, tin and copper manufactories, three lead pipe producers
and eighteen foundries. Other manufactories are recognized for what they
were, small service industries such as the fifty-eight boot and shoe shops
and the bakery and the other producers of consumer goods and services. The
U. S. Census of 1840 lists Missouri as lowest among the states in manufacture with only 191 men so employed producing an annual output of
$190,000.5
IStevens, Walter B., St.Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (1909), p. 683
^Edwards, Richard and Hopewell, M., Edwards1 Great West (i860),
PP. 376-377.
3cf. Buckingham, J.S., The Eastern and Western States of America
(1842), Vol. Ill, p. 126;
Leonard, John W., Industries of St.Louis (1887), p. 11;
Shoemaker,
Missouri and Missourians (1943), Vol. II, p. 552.
Vogt, Herbert J.;j Boot ana Shoe Industry of St.Louis (1929), p. 30.




38
In the next decade the St. Louis merchant continued to he absorbed with, his profitable commercial opportunities and only very limited capital was risked in manufacturing ventures. The editors of the Western
Journal and Civilian noted in 1851 that St. Louis merchants were too busy
trying to handle the trade that forced itself on them to evon seize now
commercial opportunities lying at their door.
"The rapid increase of population in the West has forced
upon St. Louis a commerce and growth unparalleled in the history
of modern cities; and instead of expending her means in opening
new avenues of commerce, her capital and energies have been employed in erecting buildings and preparing suitable accommodations for the trade which has sought her port unsolicited.
While this condition remains unchanged it is not to be expected
that our citizens will interest themselves to any considerable
degree in seeking out new markets: but the mighty movement that
is now going on in opening new commercial channels, east of the
Mississippi, should admonish us to prepare for a contest, which
will be necessary to retain unimpaired the natural advantages
of St. Louis over all other points in the valley of the
Mississippi
We should not wait as formerly for others
to seek our market, we should seek theirs; this is the principle
pursued by all other commercial towns and cities, with the exception of New Orleans, and even she begins to feel the necessity
of adopting it to protect her commerce against the encroachments
of the eastern and southeastern markets.
The tremendous opportunities in trade undoubtedly acted as a
"cost" for the development of manufacture - profits must be certain and
largo in industry before enterprisers would turn away from the lucrative
commerce. In his study of the fur trade Lippincott supports this view,
holding that the commercial advantages of St. Louis "militated against its
success in other lines of industry" and "tended to retard the introduction
of manufactures".
The decade of the forties does mark the tentative beginnings in
some linos of what may reasonably be termed industrial production. In
the list of "production industries" published by the Missouri
Republican shows an investment of $4,377,711. Nearly one half of this investment, however, is still found in the shops of small craftsmen. The
"industries" in which the average investment per establishment is $10,000
or more makes up a relatively uhort list.

IT he Western Journal of Commerce, St. Louis and the Tennessee Trade
(1851), Vol. VI, pp. 33-4.
^Lippincott, I., A Century and a Half of the Fur Trade
(1916), pp. 208-9.




39

Industry
Iron Foundries
Breweries
Type foundry
Eope makers
Drug and Chemical factories
Shot factory
Sawmills
Flour mills
Planing mills
Glass factories
Sugar refineries
White lead, linseed and
Castor Oil factories
Cotton Yarn factory
Gas company
Spice mill
Cotton Batting factory
Lead Pipe and Sheet factory
Pork houses
Woolen factory
Distillers
Mill Stone manufactory
Steamboat yard

Average Capital
Per Establishment

Number of
Establishments

$ 1+3,000
12,000
22,000
10,000
10,000
40,000
13,000
23,000
23,000
25,000
59,000

9
16
1
7
2
1
9
19
2
2
3

49,000
70,000
220,000
1^,000
32,000
35,000
30,000
70,000
20,000
10,000
125,000

3
1
1
1
1
1
8
1
2
1
1

The total capital invested in these twenty-two industries was
$2,566,000, the total employes about 65OO, and the annual product
$7,624,000. These figures can "be considered in terms of a city population
in I85O of 77,860; the estimated value of its commerce of $90,000,000;
and the city's investment in steamboats of $5,000,000. Comparison of these
several figures reveals that investment in all manufacturing industries was
only about one half of the investment in steamboats alone and the annual
product was less than one tenth
value of the city's commerce. So
there appears to have been only a very small place in the economy of the
city occupied by the city's industry even in 1850 and "it was not until
after the war that what might be called a system of manufactures was
developed."

^Snow, Marshall, History of the Development of Missouri and
Particularly of St. Louis (1908), p. 363,




40
Among the foregoing "productive industries" listed by the
Missouri Republican in 1851 there were the following thirty-one with annual
products in excess of $100,000:
Annual Products From "Productive Industries"
Total
Flour milling
Sugar refining
Carpentering
Pork packing
Tailoring
White Lead and Oil
Iron foundries
Candles and Lard Oil
Boots and Shoes
Shot manufacture
Butchering
Blaclcsmi thing
Brick manufacture
Cooperage
Tin and Copperami thing
Brewing
Baking
Saddle manufacture
Sawmilling
Tanning
Painting and Glazing
Eope making
Cabinet making
Starch manufacture
Steamboat yard
Type foundry
Wagon manufacture
Carriage making
Upholstering
Stonecutting
j Bricklaying

$2,367,750
1,213,000
1,171,580
799,522
650,550
600,000
569,000
1+98,500
402,900
375,000
349,650
303,130
301,470
288,822
287,328
285,925 .
276,400'
260,850
248,000
223,900
217,000
215,000
182,800
165,000
150,000
150,000
146,585
130,000
122,860
122,700
104,750

Average per
Establishment
$ 124,618
404,333
11,265
99,940
6,137
200,000
63,222
49,850
3,663
375,000
7,136
4,269
6
5,449
8,209
17,870
5,533
10,868
27,555
24,878
7,750
30,71^
3,656
55,000
150,060
130,000
4,581
16,250
12,280
13,633
8,058

r

The "small shop" nature of some of the fields possessing relatively large annual products is revealed by the average value produced per
establishment. The annual product of carpentering is over ono million
dollars but the average annual product or income per establishment is only
$11,265 compared with an average per establishment of $65,222 for iron
foundries, $124,6l8 for flour mills, $404,333 for sugar refining, and
$375,000 for shot manufacture. Noticeable among the small shop or craft
production are boots and shoes, cooperage, brick manufacture, wagon manufacture and butchering. These and a number of the others are important
fields in the economy of St. Louis but they are still far from the factory
system which had developed and was enjoying a very rapid expansion in the
East.




41
The fields in the above table which may qualify as "manufacturing
industries" on the grounds of large total product and large product per
plant are those mentioned - iron foundries, flour milling, sugar refining,
shot manufacture - and also the production of type, candles and lard oil,
rope, tanned leather, lumber, white lead and oil (castor and linseed),
starch, pork products, beer,1 and the repair and construction of steamboats.
In 1851 there was $4,37$,000 invested in all lines of "manufactories" and, as has been noted, approximately one half of this total was
in small shops of artisans and craftsmen. By i860 the total capital in all
lines had increased to a point somewhere between nine and twelve millions.^
The data for 1851 and i860 are not strictly comparable but the average capital invested per establishment in the two years allows an approximate comparison to be made. In 1851 it was $3,830 and in i860 (according to figures
reported by Scharf) was $11,309. A material increase in plant size is indie sited but the average in i860 is still very small. And annual value of
production per plant had not grown significantly, being approximately
$24,500. There were "only nineteen classes of manufacturing whose production was valued at more than $500,000 per year"^ so it is reasonable to
assume that the total "factory" capital had not increased much, if any, beyond six to eight million dollars.
Between 1840 and i860 the absorption of the enterprisers of St-.
Louis in commerce kept them from moving rapidly into manufacturing fields
and accounts in considerable, port for the employment of less than 42,000 in
manufacture as late as l880. A variety of other factors, of course, played their part in shaping the growth of St. Louis. One of these factors,
probably of relatively minor importance, is found in the handicap which inadequate banking facilities imposed between 1840 and i860 on the developing
industries.J In 1837 the Missouri legislature chartered the State Bank of
Missouri and expelled all "foreign" banks. The State Bank was the only one
in St. Louis for a decade and while the conservativeness of its management
was a welcome relief from banking excesses common to this period its
policies and its monopoly position did not encourage the entry of enterprises into new risk fields.0

iL.F* Thomas in The Localization of Business Activities in
Metropolitan St. Louis (1927) at page 70 dates the beginning in St. Louis
of meat packing at 1874 and beer manufacture in i860.
^Williams, Helen D., in Factors in the Growth of St. Louis From 1840
to i860 at p. 98 gives a figure of $9,205,205; Scharf, J. Thomas in
History of Saint Louis City and County at p. 1338 gives the figure as
$12,753,948.
^Williams, W. and Shoemaker, F. C», Missouri Mother of the West (1930)
Vol. II, pp. 379-80.
^Among the advantages possessed by St. Louis for the development of
manufactures contemporary accounts stress the coal and other mineral and
agricultural wealth of the surrounding territory, the adequate labor supply
and the situation of the city on the river system, (cf. Taylor, J. N.,
Sketch Book of St. Louis (1858) pp. 78-80; and The Western Journal (l848),
Vol. I, p. 230.)
^Williams, H. D., Factors in the Growth of St. Louis From 1840 to
i860 (1934), p. 92.
6
cf. Ghent, W. J., The Early Far West (1931), P. 306.



42
The Boatmen's Bank, the oldest existing "bank west of the
Mississippi, opened its doors on October 18, 1847 to mark a new banking
era that was not a wholly favorable one in its first decades. Local and
national financial crises affected the city's banking structure during
the fifties and the Civil War years brought repeated difficulties. On
November 28, i860 all banks in St. Louis but one suspended specie payments
and circulation of money in Missouri declined by four million dollars
from July 1859 to August i860. "Even the conservative bank of the West,^
the Bank of the State of Missouri could not always redeem its currency".
And the whole war period was spotted with alternating months of suspension
and resumption.

^Shoemaker, F. C., Missouri, Day by Day (1942), pp. 59, 261-2, 382-3.




43
The Influence of Railroad Development

Along with the new industrial influence just making itself felt,
St. Louis "began to feel in the decade of the fifties the first influence of
railway development. In I85O, the middle west was virtually without railroads. Lines which ten years before had radiated short distances out from
the West End of Lake Erie had lengthened to link Sandusky and Cincinnati and
to connect Detroit with the south end of Lake Michigan. Indianapolis was
connected with the Ohio above Louisville. In Illinois a few miles of line
were built out from Chicago, and Springfield was reaching west toward the
Illinois River.1 Only plans could be found in Missouri or in any of the
territory west of the Mississippi. In various conventions St. Louis people
had shown an early enthusiasm for railroad development. Members at the
first convention, held in St. Louis in April, 18J5, recommended the construction of two railroads from St. Louis and adjourned to a banquet at the
National Hotel. However, the convention was not wholly without result.c The
judges of the St, Louis County Court appropriated two thousand dollars for
surveys of the two proposed routes.*
In the early fifties the State of Missouri and the well-to-do merchants of Saint Louis were giving generous support to St. Louis railroads
but by i860 the development was still very small and Missouri should have
spoke^t in very modest terms of the 817 miles of rail line it had in operation,
Illinois, its neighbor and frequent rival, had 2,790 miles in the
state and in addition had extended its railroads into tributary area. Much
of the 905 miles in Wisconsin and all of the 655 miles in Iowa were merely
extensions of Illinois railroads. And to this aggregate there should be
added the 600 miles of line between Cairo and New Orleans which linked the
lower Mississippi Valley to the Illinois Central and thereby to Chicago.
With two lines at East St. Louis connecting with the network of Ohio railroads and making connections to the east coast, St. Louis was substantially
as well connected with the factories and markets of the east as Chicago but
completely lacked connections with the "feeder" railroads through southern
Wisconsin, eastern Iowa and a large section of Illinois which focussed on
Chicago. Chicago had connections to the Mississippi at LaCrosse and Prairie
du Chien in Wisconsin, and five connections across the Mississippi - four
into eastern Iowa and one reaching across northern Missouri to St. Joseph
on the Missouri River. In contrast, St. Louis had. one line reaching to St.
Joseph, another three-quarters of the way to Kansas City, a third reaching
southwestward for a short distance and finally the Iron Mountain reaching
into southeastern Missouri but still stopping short of the southern border
of the state.
^cf. Paullin, Charles P., Atlas of the Historical Geography of the
United States (1932), Platte 1J9A.
2
cf. Snow, Marshall S., History of the Development of Missouri and
Particularly of St,. Louis (1908), pp. 326-346.
3For able and detailed descriptions of the early interest and support
offered by St. Louis to railroad development see Scharf, J. Thomas,
History of Saint Louis City and County (1883), pp. 1139-1213; and Jennings,
Dorothy, Railroad Development in Missouri Before the Civil War (1930)•
.Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States
(1934), p. 347.




44
Why was a wealthy commercial center so slow to put its capital and
energies into development of railroad lines in its tributary area? Contemporary commercial writers had prodded St. Louis but, as Eartsough observes, St. Louis enterprises and business leaders did nothing more for
years than observe developments in the east.
"The changing trend of trade was by no means unobserved. The
growing importance of the canals, the Great Lakes, and the railroads in carrying westward trade was frequently commented on during
the fifties in Hunt's Merchants1 Magazine and DeBow's Review. The
latter tried to stir St, Louis and New Orleans to protective activity before it was too Late; the former contented itself with observing what was happening.
However, Hunt's Merchants' Magazine had not always been as forward
looking. In 1845 it expressed the view that the trade of St. Louis "cannot
be diverted, nor can any amount of capital supply the place of the rivers
which constitute her highways".2 Experience taught the editor of the magazine more than it did St. Louis enterprisers, or the magazine obtained a new
editor. In any event, the magazine saw later, and not too much later, that
the river might not always safeguard the future of St. Louis. As late as
1865 the secretary of the St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange indicates that the
city is still too much absorbed in tho river era.
"In the past our people have depended too much on the
natural channels for trade, namely, the great rivers that wash
our shore; but now public attention is being given to railroad extension."3
In an earlier section we have seen that St. Louis was slow to invest in steamboats and the best days of the river era had been reached before capital from the city was heavily involved in river facilities. And
similarly, once well established in the great wealth of commerce brought by
the river system, the city was slow to struggle with the problems of changing transportation techniques. A glance at a railroad map of i860 reveals
the strategic layout of Illinois railroads was such that in considerable
part St. Louis did not benefit from their existence.^" The Illinois Central
by-passed St. Louis to reach south, and the bulk of the remainder of Illinois
rail lines lay east and west. Tho St. Louis, Alton and Chicago Railroad
gave a direct connection between Chicago and St. Louis and could be considered a mutual or an offsetting advantage, depending on the point of view.
It was not chance but very definite design that made the strategic
pattern of Illinois "feeder" railroads favor Chicago and not St. Louis. These
were the days of "special incorporation" when a separate act of the legislature was needed to create a corporation charter. As a result, political
forces possessed a very easy means of directing railroad expansion. Advocates
of "state policy" in tho Illinois legislature backed their "Illinois Plan"
•^Hartsough, M. L., From Canoe to Stool Barge on the Upper Mississippi
(1954), p. 197.
^Hunt's Merchant Magazine, Vol. XV, p. 170.
3st. Louis MerchantsT Exchange, Annual Report of I865, p. 7«
^See Appendix: L.




49
which had as Its purpose the "building up of Illinois cities through careful
selection of railroad construction. For Instance, a proposed route for the
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad running across the state from St. Louis to
Vincennes and Cincinnati was opposed "because it would aid the growth of the
two terminal cities at the expense of intermediate Illinois points. Similar
objections were faced "by promoters of the Atlantic and Mississippi Railroad
who proposed to build from Indianapolis to St. Louis. The state group was
softened by proposals that the east-west roads across southern and central
Illinois should develop Alton as their western terminus
Two of the three east-west roads across middle and southern
Illinois were completed in the last half of the fifties. The Terre Haute
and Alton was built between 1853 and 1855 and before it was completed obtained a branch line to East St. Loins. As a result Alton lost much of the
terminal advantages promised to her by backers of the Illinois plan. The
town became merely an important intermediate station and "St. Louis inI! P
terests chuckled over the advantage that accrued to their city .
The intentions of the Illinois system wore also aimed at making
Cairo the southern entrepot of the state with Springfield benefiting as an
Important intermediate point and Alton and Galena gaining as northern
termini for the north-south roads of the state. "To Chicago, however, went
the peculiar benefits of the proposed system". A branch of the Illinois
Central terminating in Chicago was to be built so that "like the Illinois
and Michigan Canal, it would divert trade from St. L o u i s " . 3 Southern
Illinois very generally opposed the "state system" and it had the backing of
Governor French who was financially interested in railroad construction in
the southern part of the state. The Governor was dubbed "the tool of St.
Louis" and efforts of southern Illinois interests to end special incorporation by passage of a general incorporation law wore labeled a "St. Louis
proposition" by their opponents and successfully blocked in the legislature.
This political situation did not prevent the construction of Illinois railroads terminating in St. Louis but inevitably made more difficult the promotion of a network of feeder lines in the area immediately east of the city.
But its big result lay in the positive Impetus it gave to the construction
of the Illinois Central and to the other roada radiating out from Chicago.
In the sixties Missouri did not manage to make up for its slow
start with railroad construction in the previous decade. To the contrary
it lost further ground to several of the surrounding states.
Railway Mileage Operated
i860

1870

Incroaoo

Missouri
817
Illinois 2790
Wisconsin $i0r>
Minne sota
0
Iova
6>5
Kansas
0
N0.& So.Dak. 0

2000
4823
1525
1092
2683
15 ol
65

II83
2033
620
1092
2028
1501
65

i-Cole,A.C., Tho Era of the CiyiTWar (1919); pi). 33-4.
2
Ibid., p. 4 5 ^
~
3lbid., p. 33.




kS
In large part the Civil War must explain the smallness of the gain
made "by Missouri.1 Both Illinois and Iowa added almost twice as much to
their mileage as Missouri and the rail mileage tributary to Chicago in
Wisconsin and Minnesota increased very materially. St. Louis, however, did
make an important advance in "building lines into the north Missouri and Iowa
network. And in respect to transcontinental traffic the city was in about
as good a position as Chicago by virtue of its lino to Denver joining the
Union Pacific at Cheyenne. But to the southwest Missouri railroads had not
yet broken their way over the northern border of Arkansas.
The annual report of the St. Louis Merchants* Exchange in 1866
stated the need of St. Louis for connections into Iowa, Nebraska, and
Minnesota but recognized that diversion of traffic to St. Louis would not be
easy. Even more significant is the recognition that the city lackod rail
connections to its own natural, nearby market areas.
"The extension of this last line (St. Louis and San Diego,
via Springfield) from Rolls, merely to the southwest corner of
Missouri would bo an incalculable benefit. The trade of the
Northwestern roads may be partially diverted from St. Louis by
the construction of rival linos. But the Southwest Branch, by
its advantages of situation, wall compel all connecting lines to
be subsidiary to itself; and its commerce, constantly swelled
by the traffic of subsidiary roads, must necessarily flow to
St. Louis. The extension of this road would opon to settlement
vast tracts of valuable land, and, by the impulse of cheap transportation, load to an extended development of the rich mines of
Southwestern Missouri
The two major and closely related results of railroad construction
which affected St. Louis up to l8?0 were the loss of steamboat tonnage to
railroads and the narrowing of the St. Louis market arc-a as other cities,
notably Chicago, built rail lines into territories that the river system had
ma.de tributary territories of St. Louis.
The sixties wore abnormally affected, for St. Louis by the Civil War
and the early part of the following decade, although it lies outside our
present period, reveals more certainly the effect of rail development on
river traffic at St. Louis. Ten years after the closo of the war 1,9*'0,5^5
tons of freight was shipped from St. Louis and 3,896,295 tons were received.3
Railroads moved sixty-seven percent of the outgoing tonnage and eighty-three
percent of the incoming traffic.
Appendices D and E show for 1865, and 1&73 St. Louis receipts of
over sixty commodities with a breakdown 3dentifying the delivering rail

lYi olotto ascribes the slowness of Missouri railroad extension between
i860 and 1870 to the Civil War, the unproductive character of the land grants,
excessive costs of construction, lack of traffic, and bad financial management. (Violotto, E.M.„ A_Hi story of Missouri (1917). pp. 240-2^2.)
2
St. Louis Merchants* Exchange, "Annual Report of 1866, p. 32.
3st. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of I883, pp. kO-kl.




47
carriers or tho separate stretches of tho Mississippi System on which waterway receipts wore originated. The 1865 figures show railroads of material
hut varying importance in different commodity movements. For example, the
St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute R.R. and the Ohio & Mississippi R.R., brought
in all of the 42,268 boxes of cheese shipped into the city. None came by
boat. But for oats the railroads (mainly the St. Louis,, Alton & Terre Haute)
terminated only 19,783 bushels of a total of 295*371 bushels. All the
balance, 276,088 bushels came via the Illinois River.
In 1873 the receipts of cheese had increased to 58*771 boxes with
all but 2,978 coming in by rail. Oats receipts had grown to 3*358^00
bushels and 433,564 sacks. The major part of the sacked grain moved on the
upper Mississippi River but almost all the bulk movement came by rail with
the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern carrying nearly a million and a half
bushels and the Missouri Pacific eight hundred thousand.
Appendices F and G show river and rail outgoing shipments from St.
Louis by individual commodities for 1865 and 1873 and. while the importance
of the river system in shipping particular commodities varies a great deal,
there is an even larger diversion from the waterway by 1873 tfyan in the case
of receipts. In 1865 the river was still moving out the great bulk of all
commodities except for furs and pelts, hides, lard, iron slabs, rags, rye,
salt, loaf tobacco, wheat, white lead and wool. With very few exceptions
this situation was reversed by 1873 and the railroads were moving larger
quantities of most of the individual commodities than the rivers. Exceptions to this division of traffic is to be noted for very few articles. Out
of some sixty commodities river tonnage is larger than rail for only apples,
ale and beer, bacon, corn, corn meal, hay, oats, onions, ore, pork in
barrels, rye, salt, and white load. For tho remaining commodities rail
tonnage is in excess, and often far in excess, of river tonnage.
The second effect of railroad construction, the narrowing of tho
St. Louis trade area, was very obvious. Tho opening of the IllinoisMichigan Canal in 1848 improved markedly the position of Chicago in a trade
territory which that city could properly view as a tributary one but which
had nevertheless moved much of its traffic downriver to St. Louis.^ Tho
railroads merely magnified tremendously tho diversion started by the canal
to the very material advantage- of Chicago.
"Not Alton, but Chicago - tho key to the railroad system of
the northwest- was to succeed to the economic leadership of
St. Louis. Railroads reinforced tho canal and oven competed with
it for the lighter freights. When the rail connections with Peoria
and Rock Island wore completed, the process of making the Illinois
valley tributary to Chicago was rounded out. The Chicago and
Galena diverted from St. Louis and the Mississippi route the lead
traffic and tho agr icultural products of Minnesota, Wisconsin and
northern Iowa, as well as of northwestern Illinois. The Illinois
Central brought forward to Chicago quantities of products from
central Illinois, though it carried enough to Cairo to threaten

iThomas, L. E., The Localization of Business Activities in Metropolitan
_
St. Louis (1987), p. W .




48
to build up another rival to St. Louis at the southern extremity
of the state. At the beginning of the decade with five-eights
of the agricultural trade of St. Louis drawn from Illinois and
with Illinoisians talcing in return nearly three fourths of the
merchandise sold in St. Louis, the Missouri legislature was
able to levy a tax of $4.50 on every $1,000 worth of foreign
products and merchandise sold in that state and on articles purchased by outsiders; in the closing years St. Louis bent all
hor energies toward caving what remnants she could from the
grasp of Chicago/'1
Eiver traffic in the best days of the steamboat had made a
"natural" St. Louis trade territory out of not only the country west of the
Mississippi but also the upper Illinois and Mississippi River valleys and
the country bordering on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers and lying within the northern portion of Arkansas. The slowness of St. Louis business men
to move from steamboating days into the new era. the drive of Illinois interests against St. Louis, and the disturbance of the Civil War hurt St.
Louis rail development, but in fact, its losses of trade territory would inevitably have been large. The fact which St. Louis was slow to realize was
that a large trade area that was "natural" to St. Louis under one transportation system was an obvious tributary area of other cities such as Chicago
and Cincinnati under a different transportation scheme.
"It was also clearly realized, at least by some observers,
that this competition between the north-south and the east-west
routo was to a, largo extent a competition between marketing
centers -- between St. Louis-Cincinnati and Chicago-Milwaukee
and between New Orleans and the Atlantic ports
»

Railroads strengthened the trade position of those cities in certain areas
but they afforded moans for one or the other of the cities to change the
pattern of "natural" or "tributary" trade areas.3 As a result, St. Louis
found that the "northwest" of the upper Missouri and Mississippi rivers, portions of Illinois, and even sections of northern Missouri were no longer her
"own">
The St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange reported in 1866 that of fifteen
million bushels of wheat shipped from points above Rock Island only one
million came to St. Louis.2 The construction of the Lake Superior and
Mississippi Railroad between the Twin Cities and Duluth In 1&71 also increased the diversion of upper river traffic from. St. Loiiis to the Great Lakes
route.6
x

Cole, A. C., EraT^oF"the Civil War 0-919), p. 52.
-Hartsough, M. L., From Canoe to Steel Barge on the Unper Mississippi
, pp. 197-8.
cf. Eorton, L. Y., Analysis of The St« Louis Trade Territory (1935),
pp. 16-17;
yiolette, E. M., A History of Missouri (1918), pp. 233-4.
Thomas, L. F., The Localization of Business Activities in Metropolitan
St. Louis (1927), p. 5;
Lippincott, I., Internal Trade of the United States, (1916), p. 145.
^St. Louis MerchantsT Exchange, Annual Report of 1866, p. 9.
"Hartsough, M. L., From Canoe to Steel Barge on the Upper Mississippi.
(193*0, pp. 196-7.




ij-9
In respect to central and southern Illinois traffic, the lack of
a bridge at St, Louis undoubtedly diverted some traffic from the city. Ice
still interrupted the f e r r y service from time to time and the charges of the
ferry company comprised a hand::cap of importance for some incoming traffic.
Eads estimated that for 1^6? freight transportation costs would have been
reduced by over a half million dollars and passenger costs by over one
hundred thousand dollars if the city had possessed a bridge across the
river.1 And Hubbard in The Older Middle West very graphically shows that
the Illinois Central was making a Chicago trade area out of the south which
had been so much St. Louis1 own in steamboat days.
"Moreover, the volume of South-going trade was
much
larger than that registered by river traffic. The building of
the Illinois Central and the establishment of direct connection
brtween Chicago and the South added still further to this trade.
The work on this road began in 1851 in both northern and southern
Illinois. This important line g r a d u a l l y brought together isolated
counties in southern and central Illinois and put them in touch
with the southern market. By its river connections with the
southern railroad systems, the Nashville and Chattanooga, Memphis
and Charleston, and the Mobile and Ohio, great inland districts of
Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama wore made accessible
to northern products. The sale of lands along the roads brought
settlers, and land sold easily at improved values....... An
event of special significance was the completion of the road to
Chicago and the bringing of northern Illinois into the scope of
this trade area. In November, 1357* the first largo consignment
of sugar reached Chicago and from that time until the war hundreds
of hogsheads of sugar and molasses were received each month, and
even large shipments of cotton. Pork, flour, and grain from
Chicago and northern Illinois went to the South in increasing
quantities. The freight shipments of tho Illinois Central railroad
increased speedily from 1858 to i860, this road, being one of the
first to recover after tho crisis of 1857. Wo shall see that in
l860-l86l tho business of the Illinois Central with the south was
enormous; at Cairo freight accumulated beyond the power of the
railroad a&d steamship companies to handle it. In March, i860,
tho completion of the Mississippi Central Railroad made an unbroken connection between New Orleans and Chicago."2
St. Louis had. grown to be a wealthy commercial center because of
a "break" in tho dominant transportation system of tho pro-railroad period.
But now the "break" was being by-passod so that evon the lower river territory was no longer a natural tra.de aroa. of the city.
Tho same phenomenon was occurring in the northwest which the
Missouri River had tied to St. Louis. When the Chicago, Rock Island and
Pacific reached Council Bluffs in 1869 tho old St. Louis river artery was
cut and the Montana trade in very largo volume was diverted to Chicago.-^

•'-Eads, James B., Addresses, Letters and Papers (1884), p. 535•
2
Eubbart, Hf C 0 Tho Older Middle West, I84p-l880 (1936), pp. 86-87.
3Trexler, H. A., Missour1 -Montana Highways, Missouri Historical Review,
April 1918.




50
So partly through the slowness of St. Louis enterprise, partly from the handicaps created by the Civil War, and partly through the inevitable redistribution of markets under the new form of transportation, the Metropolis of the
West found itself challenged at every turn.




Effects of the Civil War
An appreciation of the economic interdependence existing between
St * Louis and the South, built largely on the southern river traffic, makes
very clear the paralyzing shock to the trade of St, Louis which the Civil
War inflicted.Until the lower river was opened by Union forces in
September 1863 the phrase "free navigation of tjie Mississippi were words to
conjure with" in all the territory of the Middle West except for that portion directly tributary to the Great Lakes
The North merely looked at the
opening of the river as a valuable military advantage but to St. Louis it
was the first requirement for recovery from effects of the war .3 By i860
railroads had made heavy inroads into river traffic but a third of the surplus of the upper Mississippi area was still going south. And much of St.
Louis budding manufacturers were going south where the best market for the
hardwood, machinery, cotton yarn, pipe, shoes, and hemp products of St.
Louis was found,^ It is true that the proportion of the total trade of the
upper valley which went south in i860 was smaller than in 18^-0 but the
actual volume was larger in i860 than in the earlier year,5
St. Louis did enjoy a superficial, wartime boom after the first
disruptions of the outbreak of hostilities were ended.
Its merchants
could not help but gain a profitable trade as the city served as the
western supply base for a million troops. From September 1, l86l to
December 31. 1865 the, Commissary of the Department of the West spent
$230,700,000 in the city for supplies and transportation.7 But the broad
general activities of the city were badly disorganized as commercial
activities seemed to fall into the hands of those merchants who were
successful in obtaining government contracts.u
Various minor benefits came to the city from the war. Eads obtained an early contract to build seven shallow draft, ironclad gunboats
and the city became an active boat-building center throughout the war.9
Pork packing also increased materially to meet army needs so that by the
end of the war a number of companies were doing a flourishing business.10
In the last half of l86l and the first half of 2.862 the city packed
18,789,000 pounds of pork products and in the peak year, I863-U,
783,000
pounds. In 1865-6, however, the wartime boom collapsed with only 25,65^,000
pounds being packed.Unfortunately for St. Louis, Chicago had been making
x

Stovens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (1909 ),p. 367.
^Rhodes, J. F., History of the United States (1920), Vol. IV, p. 299.
3cf. Hubbart, H. C., The Older Middle West, 1&0-1880 (1936), pu.157 ff.
jTbid., pp. 80-81.
5cf. Fiske, John, The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War, (1900).
^Hubbart, H.C., The Older Middle"West, 18^0-1880 (1936J;pp. 220-21.
7W.P.A. Writers Program, Missouri (T9C1), p, 81;
Richard, Brenda E., St. Louis During the Civil War (l93^)>p. 1^5.
8
cf. Reedy, W„M., St. Louis, 5?hb "Future Great in L.P .Powell1 s Historic
Towns of the Western States (190l"JT"~
^Shoemaker, F, C», Missouri, Day by Day (I9]i2), p. 2^9. y
Richard, Brenda E., St. Louis During the Civil War (193^)7 p. 1^0.
10
Stevens, Walter B., St. Louis The Fourth City,176^-1909(1909),p, 638.
Ust. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1866, p. 63.




gains during the war which wore far larger than those of St, Louis and in
the long run less dependent on wartime boom conditions.
"Progress in hog packing was centered chiefly in Chicago. The
industry here had "been progressing slowly for almost 30 years, when
suddenly as the result of tho unusual transportation conditions
arising out of the closing of the Mississippi River the yearly output rose from 270,000 hogs in i860, tho largest number packed in
any one year before the war, to 900,000, and one-third of the whole
packing business of the West was gathered at one center; in the
revolution St. Louis, Louisville, and Cincinnati as pork-packing
centers were left far behind, tho last named city losing forever
to its rival on the Lakes the proud title TPorkopolis of the West1."
Tobacco manufacture in the city made some gains as the conflict
disorganized labor conditions in the rural districts of Missouri * In 1865
virtually all the tobacco
raised in the state came to St. Louis for manuQ
facture or reshipment
However, in general the city probably lost more
than it gained in that the troubles of the Missouri industry resulted in
gains for eastern tobacco cultivation, mainly in the Connecticut V a l l e y . 3
Somewhat counteracting this advantage given to the east was the impetus
given to the St. Louis shoe industry by the war. The loss of skilled labor
in the East and the large needs of the army for shoes resulted in help to
the shoe industries of Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis. The government
laboratories in St. Louis for the manufacture of drugs also helped locate an
important element of that industry in the city.
An appraisal of St. Louis and her situation in 1866, made by the
secretary of the St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, does not find much in the
way of offsetting advantages to the general disruption of the war.
"When we consider the difficulties which have hampered the
trade of our city during the war, and the disadvantages under which
wo have labored, tho record of our business may bo considered as
satisfactory as could be expected. Cut off from the Southern trade,
which had always sought a market in St. Louis; the trade of the
North West diverted to other cities on account of the disturb^
state of our affairs; the trade of our own state completely
prostrated; it is not to bo wondered at that the commercial interests of our city suffered deeply.
One of the two outstanding sources of loss to St. Louis from the
war unque sti onably came from the retardation of railroad construction, particularly in Missouri and tho states lying to the south. An earlier section
has shown that St. Louis capital was slow to move into railroad investment
and the war blocked development for five years at a very crucial time. And
at the same time, it sharply aided the development of the network tied into
Chicago.
-4?ite,E. D., Social and Industrial Conditions in the North During the
Civil War (1910), ? r W .
^St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1865, p. 65.
J
cf. Fite, E. D., Social and Industrial Conditions in the North. During
tho Cjiva Wfl-r (1910), p. 3.
*St. Louis Merchants* Exchange, Annual Report of 1865, (George H# Morgan,
Secretary), (1866), p. 5*



Furthermore, the Chicago-New York route ho came the dominant east-west route
during the war and along with Chicago's dominance of the Iowa rail network
constituted a severe handicap to Baltimore, Cincinnati and St. Louis who
were "too near the seat of the war to share in the growing trade"
The second major source of injury wrought "by the war was the
wrecking of the economy of the south. St. Louis merchants had been slow to
seize business opportunities in the states north of Missouri, largely becau
of preoccupation with the southwnr d -mo ving river trade. The eoonomic ties
of the city were firmly fixed in the south and change was difficult. The
need for finding now markets was obvious in the decade after the war. A
measure of the shift in the potentialities to be found in northern and
southern markets can bo seen in the cash value of farms for i860 and 1870
in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana and in four northern
states - Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.
In the four southern
states this dollar value was 758 millions in i860 and. 4o8 millions in 1870
a decrease of forty-six percent. In the four northern states the value was
687 millions in i860 and 1711 millions in 1870 - an increase of 250 percent

^Flte, E, D, , Social and Industrial Conditions in the North During
—
the Civil War (1910), pp. 47-8.
r
-U. S. Census, Agriculture in the United States in i860, p. 184.




PART II

Commercial and Industrial Development 1870*1910

Growth of the City and Its Population
By 1875 the city is showing many evidences of the new era.
Steamboats still "bustled about the water front but a sign of new times on
the river is apparent in the many large barges tied up along the levee.
Ana even more significant of the changing times are the tracks of the
several railroads. The St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern came in along
the shore from the north and at Biddle Street, as the tracks entered the
town, ran a switching track into one of the outstanding industrial plants
of the north side, the St. Louis Grain Elevator.1 The railroad obviously
met a competitor here in the movement of grain for the plant was built
partly out over the river so as to provide loading facilities for river
barges. A few blocks north of the elevator could be seen the four tall
chimneys of the St. Louis Refining Company, a further sign of another
phase of the new days.
At Washington Street tho rail tracks turned into their terminal
and also continued on down tho innersido of the levee past warehouses, mercantile offices and shops, to go under Eads Bridge and on to the South
Levee to tho Iron Mountain Railroad terminal. Within a few blocks of this
depot could be seen the plants of the St. Louis Iron and Machine Works,
Mulhall Packing Company, the Southern Oil and Color Company, the Southern
Boilor and Sheet Iron Works, the Empire Stove Company, and other industrial plants typical of the developing industry of the city. Along the
tracks of the Iron Mountain, running south along the river shore could be
seen similar establishments and. as tho town began to thin out on its
southern edge, tho three large buildings of the St. Louis Cotton Compress
Company stood out cloairly. As was the ca.se with the St. Louis Grain
Elevator, this plant was served not only by the railroad but by steamboats and barges on tho river.
Tho major rail terminals of the city lay between 7th and 12th
Streets near the center of town between Chouteau and Market Streets. Here
were the freight depots of the Atlantic and Pacific, the Missouri Pacific,
and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas. Around those terminals were a number of
Industrial companies, the Central Elevator Company, the mills of the St.
Louis Bagging Company, the Pacific Iron Works, the Fritz and Wainright
Brewery, the tobacco warehouse of Evans Brothers, and other plants of
similar typo.

iDescription of tho city from Pictorial St. Louis by Camille N. Dry

(1876)




55
In terms of its present appearance, the commercial and residential
sections of the city in 1875 still seemed to cling close to the river. In
that year the corporate "boundaries of the city were set at their present limits when the legislature of the state separated city and county government.
The city had "built out far "beyond 9th Street whore the western edge of
building had been found in 1840 but it still was only built up about half
way out to its western corporate limits. A resident could take the horse
cars out East on Avenue and on west past Grand, or if he chosc, north along
Grand, but ho would find only in a few places any consistently built up sections in that area. In general, scattered farm homes or ra.ther pretentious
estates dotted the west side beyond Grand Avenue.
In 1875 the city proper housed a population in the neighborhood of
300,000 and increased Its building steadily as population was more than
doubled by 1910. The separation of the city from the county, effective in
1876, draws attention to the question of accrediting to St. Louis the population of not only the city proper but of sections which may properly be
considered the metropolitan area or the industrial area of St. Louis. The
following table shows a total for the "St. Louis Industrial District" consisting of the City and St. Louis County, and Madison and St. Clair Counties
in Illinois. For the years 1950 and 1940 only, the U. S. Census reported a
population figure for the "St. Louis Metropolitan District" which consisted
of a portion of St. Clair, Madison and Monroe Counties in Illinois and a portion of St. Charles County and all of St. Louis City and County in Missouri.
The population reported for this Metropolitan District in 1930 and 1940 was
within five percent of the figure for the St. Louis Industrial Area arrived
at as described above mid as shown in the following table, therefore the
figures for the St. Louis Industrial District may bo taken as a satisfactory
approximation of the St. Louis Metropolitan population from IS70 to 1910.

Year

St.Louie
City
(Mo.)

St.Louis
County,
(Mo.)

Madison
County,
(111.)

St.Clair
County,
(111.)

Total:
St.Louis
Industrial
District

l870 a
1880
1890
1900
1910

236,671
350,518
451,770
575,238
687,029

30,605
31,888
36,307
50,o4o
82,417

44,131
50,126
51,535
64,694
89,847

51,068
61,806
66,571
86,685
119,870

362,475
494,338
606,183
776,657
979,163

'^Estimated: See Appendix K; other figures from U. S. Census.
As has been previously stated there was admitted falsification of
the Census returns for 1870 and as a result the figure of 351*189 reported
for St. Louis County (including the city), is a considerable overstatement.
Best estimates of the correct figures for city and county have placed them
at two-fifths of the way between the i860 and the 1880 figures.
It is apparent in the foregoing figures that the city proper was
of increasing importance in the total Industrial District population until
I89O when it steadily lost ground. In that year it made up eighty-eight percent of the total and in the two succeeding decennial censuses seventy-two
~
-^f., Stevens, Walter B., St7 Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909
(1909), p, 989.



56
and sixty-eight percent respectively. Relative importance after 1890 was
largely gained "by St. Louis County which increased its percentage of the
total from 5.8 to 8.2. The two Illinois counties between 1900 and 1910 increased their combined percentage importance from 19 to 21 percent.
In tho decades following 1880 the population of St. Louis City
and the St. Louis Industrial Area both grow somewhat faster than the national
total. And among the cities dependent on the river transportation of the
Mississippi System in tho period before 1870 St. Louis shows a relatively
favorable growth. The following table shows the population of the country
as a whole increasing by eighty-three percent from 1880 to 1910 with St.
Louis City population increasing ninety-six percent and the Industrial District ninety-eight percent.

Population Growth by Decades 1880-1910
(in thousands)

Location

452

129

575

164

Ratio 'Amount of
of iIncrease
1880
1910
1910
to
to
1880
1910
I
337
687 196

!* 60 6
j 1,100,

123
23.9

777
1,699

157
338

979
2,185

! 1,263
1 297
!
171I
161 ;
64;i
j 2421
165'i
l40j1
62,948,;

292
190
1,939
2,577 389
116 1f 326 128 ' 364 143
365
331 561
290 |1 21?
!
224 181
205
165
130
131 386
192 i1 102 304
112 :!• 287' 133
339 157
301 643
351 1! 203; 432
124. 407
46o !!
103! 336
126 -75,S)95! 152 :• 91,972j 183

Ratio
i
i
j
of
i
!| 1380 j 1890
1390
i
to
t
1
1880
i
j

St. Louis City
351
St. Louis Industrial District
494
Chicago
||
503
Chicago Indus- 1
trial District I1
663
C inc innat1
,
; 255
59
Kansas Citya
1
124
Louisville
1
3U
Memphis
216
New Orleans
Minneapolis
47
Omaha
31
United States
50,156

,
«|

Sat io
of
1900
1900
to
1880

198
434

485
1,682

!!
I
i
!
j
1

1,914
108
272
100
98 ;
123
255 1
94
41,816
j

a

Includes Kansas City in Missouri and in Kansas.

Source: U. S. Census: for make-up of St. Loui3 and Chicago
Industrial Areas see Appendix K.
Minneapolis, Kansas City, Chicago, and Memphis show very large
percentage increases In 1910 relatlve to i860. Howevor, except for Chicago,
the absolute amount/of increase is much smaller than for St. Louis, the
large percentage increases being due to small populations in the base year.
St. Louis City has its growth spread rather evenly over these thirty years
with an accretion of 100,000 to 125,000 In each decade. The same feature is
also apparent in the data for most of the other cities although irregularities are apparent for certain decades in Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Kansas
City, and Omaha. The St. Louis Industrial District also shows some uneveness
in growth increasing approximately 112,000 in the eighties, 70,000 in the
nineties and 20J,000 in the last decade of this period.



Rail and Elver, 1870-1910
In 1870, the states west of the Mississippi River including even
Missouri had made relatively small headway with the building of a railway
network. In the area of the Mississippi Valley, Illinois was very definitely in the lead with a state mileage well over double that of Missouri
and with directly supplementary mileage of very considerable extent in
Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota,
St. Louis enjoyed comparatively satisfactory rail connections
with eastern manufacturing areas but waited until the eighties or nineties
for a "feeder" system of railroads in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and
Texas. To the north the feeder roads existed but they were oriented toward
Chicago, and in the South, in the area east of the Mississippi, the
Illinois Central was an early and powerful influence tying that area to
Chicago. As a result, southern Missouri and the states directly to the
south which wore favorable areas for St. Louis trade had obtained only two
through rail routes and virtually no network of feeder lines by 1880.1 And
this situation had not materially improved by 1890. The western half of
Kansas and southeastern quarter of Nebraska, however, were very favorably
developed and St. Louis connections into these areas were good.
Statistics on railway mileage show a considerable relative lag
in construction in a number of the southwestern states in which St. Louis
commercial interests might hope to find favorable markets.
Railroad Mileage of Selected StateIS
!
State
1870 , 1880 | 1890 1j 1900
N. & S. Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Iowa
Illinois
Kansas
Missouri
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Texas
Louisiana.
Mountain States
Pacific Coast States
1

I
1910

|

j
5,581
1,225 i 4,427
8,149
< 1,092 j 3 >151 ! 5,466 1 6,943
8,669
ji 1,525 i 3,155 | 5,584 !1 6,531
7,475
;
6,067
5,685
705 i 1,953 | 5,295
2,683 T 5,400 j 8,556
9,755
9,185
11,878
10,214
11,003
7,851
9,007
1,501 | 3,400 1 8,806
8,719
2,000 ; 3,965 ! 6,004
8,085
6,875
5,980
2,151
289 ] 1,214
3,360
5,306
256
859 ! 2,196
14,282
711 I 3,244 1 8.613 11 9,886
652 I 1,759 : 2,824
1i 450 '
j 5,554
5,082 1 12,676
22,956
! 1,084 . 2,992 j 7,567 !! 10,389 14,932
4 , 8 2 3

i

0

Source: U.S.Dept. of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the
United States (1943), p. 451

^See Appendix L for outline maps showing approximate railroad
lines in I87O, i860, 1890.




58
Comparison of the 1890 and 1910 mileages reveals the relative
slowness of development in some of the states. By 1890, Kansas, Illinois,
Iowa,, and Nebraska had over c ighty-five percent of their 1910 mileage while
Missouri had only seventy-four percent and Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma,
and Texas between twenty and sixty percent of their respective 1910
mileages.
In the ten years from 1874 to 1883 railroads west of the
Mississippi handled well under one half of the total rail tonnage handled
at St. Louis. Of a total of 4,596,000 tons in 1874 the lines west of the
river handled only thirty-seven percent.1 However, ten years later the
western lines had steadily improved their relative place and are handling
forty-six percent, thus "bearing evidence to the related settlement of the
territory and construction of rail lines. And later when the rail network
was filled out in the Southwest the importance of the area to St. Louis reflects the handicap which the city suffered in these earlier years.
Walter B. Stevens who stands along with Scharf as the leading historian of
St. Louis economic affairs fully appreciated the significance to the city
of the railroad building of the later period.
"In 1905, out of a total of over 5,000 miles of railroad
constructed in the United States, 2,302 miles were built in the
Southwest; that is, in the states of Missouri, Arkansas,
Louisiana, Oklahoma., Indian Territory and Texas. In 1904 the
total railroad building in the United States amounted to
5,822.26 miles; in 1905 to 4,558.2 miles, and in 1906 to 5,625
miles, of which in each year, at least 40 percent was in the
states above named. About the same percentage of mileage is
being constructed in the southwest now. In all of this development St. Louis capital has been heavily interested.
As an indication of the volume of business St. Louis has
with the southwest, the following figures are instructive: the
total number of tons of freight shipped out of St. Louis in 1907
was 18,574,916; of this, 10,537,291 tons, or 57 percent was for
the southwest. The total number of tons of freight shipped in
to St. Louis the same year was 29,445,669; of this, 15,146,725
tons, or 51 percent, was from the Southwest."^
While rail transportation was developing its extensive facilities
throughout the forty years of this period the channel conditions of the
Mississippi Eiver System were improved but few fundamental improvements
were made. Eads1 work in the mouth of the passes removed a. very serious
handicap to river commerce and some important improvements in channel depths
were made on all the sections of the System except on the Missouri for which
lavish public expenditures were started after 1910. On the Illinois River
from the mouth to just below Peoria early state projects had struggled with
only partial success to maintain a four foot channel. A Federal project of
1879 provided for a seven foot channel but although several locks and dams
were in operation in the nineties, the work was still not completed by 1910
so that a.t extreme low water four and one half feet was the maximum for
through traffic. This, however, was a considerable improvement over the
earlier years when only the smallest flatboats could use the river in the
dry seasons. On the upper stretch of the Illinois the first appropriation
aiming at a seven foot channel was made in 1907.
~ i s t .Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1883, p. 38.
^Stevens, Walter B., St.Louis, The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (1909)
pp. 69U-5.
~~




59
On the Upper Mississippi "between St. Louis and Minneapolis-St.
Paul, the first project came In l8?9 ^ad was carried on -steadily so that by
1911 the expenditure of something over twelve million dollars was maintaining a channel of four and one half feet at low water. Between St. Louis
and Cairo, in the stretch which had offered so many obstacles to transportation in earlier days, the Federal Government began work in l8?2 to maintain a channel with a minimum depth of eight feet. By 1911 over twelve
millions had been expended and the project depth was rather generally maintained. Below Cairo the hazards on the river had been less serious in the
pre-Civil War years but improvements aiming at a nine foot channel were
approved by Congress in 1905 and 1907.
The Missouri continued to be the poor transportation means that
It had. been before 1870. The report of the Chief of Engineers In 1911 records little or no improvement In the channel and not even any complete
solution of the old "snag" problem.
"The original condition of the river was, and to a great
extent the present condition is, one of alternate pools and
bars. The low water depth over bars is about 3 feet.
The river is also encumbered with snags, which, however,
are getting fewer due to constant snagging operations. No
project for improvement of the river as a. whole has been
adopted.
Lavish expenditures were to be poured into the Missouri In later
years but it is apparent that Missouri communities had no very valuable
transportation means in the river.
On the thousand miles of the Ohio, river improvements had been
started by the Federal Government as early as 1827. Locks and dams were
constructed to provide passage around the worst of the shallows and
dredging and snagging operations went on intermittently. The total expenditure from 1827 to 1911, however, stood at, by present day standards,
the very modest figure of $6,503,000.
The combined tonnage handled by
the east and west railroads made up the bulk of the city's tonnage as
river traffic passed further and. further "beyond its best days. For freight
received at St. Louis, the railroad percentage of the total increased year
by year from eighty-one percent in 1874 to ninety-two percent in 1883*
However, the total actual receipts by river declined little or none. The
river merely failed to grow with the marked growth of receipts at the port.
In 1874 the rail carriers brought in 3,165,093 tons and river carriers
736,765. Ten years later, the rail tonnage had more than doubled to
6,940,723 tons while river tonnage was 629,225 without the inclusion of
231,285 tons of lumber, logs and shingles moving by r a f t . 5

vJhief of Engineers, U, S. Army, Annual Report of 1911, Part I, p. 689.
2

Ibid, p. 733
5st.Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1883, p. 40.




60
By the end of the period under consideration, the river traffic
terminating in the city was down to 300,000 tons, less than half the volume
typical of the seventies and eighties. And rail terminations were nearly
four times greater than in i 8 s 3 . 1
In handling outgoing traffic the river was slightly more valuable
to the city in the early years of the period. However, shipments "by river
dropped sharply in percentage importance though holding to about the same
tonnage. Outgoing shipments by barge and steamboat aggregated 707,325 tons
in 1874, thirty-six percent of total outgoing tonnage. By 1883 these
figures were 677,3^0 tons and sixteen percent, providing evidence that St..
Louis was finding less and less contribution to her growth from river transportation. By the end of the period shipments out of the city by river had
about disappeared. The average annual shipments for 1906-1908 were only
80,000 tons while rail shipments were over 17,250,000 tons.
The major products moving out by river were white lead, lard,
meat, hams, barbed wire and ale and beer. Downriver boats took the bulk
of the meat and hams with some considerable quantity also going to
Tennessee River points.
Nearly half the barbed wire was also shipped to downriver points,
but important portions of the total went to the Upper Mississippi, and to
Illinois and Missouri River destinations. Out of a total of 1100 tons of
white lead 650 tons went out on Upper Mississippi boats, 360 tons wont downriver and 50 tons to Illinois River points. Downriver boats also took out
76,000 pounds of tobacco with almost all the remainder, 1900 pounds, going
to Upper Mississippi destinations.
In respect to both receipts and shipments all of the component
parts of the Mississippi River System except the Ohio River declined in importance in carrying traffic to St. Louis. The following table showing
receipts in 1908 reveals that with one exception the various sections of
the river system had declined to virtual insignificance. The Ohio, however, started a larger tonnage toward St. Louis in 1908 than in 1883. Coal
traffic accounts for much of this tonnage.
Tons Received and Shipped by River 1883 - 1906
Tons Received
Tons Shipped
Waterway
188:
1908
1883 j 1908~
a
27,280
60,020
Upper Mississippi
19,245
(12b,330
30,285
535,330
Lower Mississippi
70,165
j202,210
5,900
Illinois River
9,^75
j 94,205
M15
b
5,320
Missouri River
4,365
18,990
I 33,770
Ohio River
185,100
55,920
1155,095
3,955)
4,830
Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers i 17,615
510
Ouachita
-1*855.
72,740
t
Total
295,180 ; 677t3^0
1629,225
a

Does not include 228,950 tons by r^ft.
^Does not include 2,335 tons by raft.
Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange Annual Reports of 1883 at
p. 48 and 1908 at pp. 92-3.
1st.Louis Merchants* Exchange, Annual Report of 1908, p. 93.
2

Ibid, p. 103.




61
The decline in shipments is very marked for all sections of the river
system "but tho drop of the lower Mississippi tonnage from 535,000 to 30,000
is particularly striking since St. Louis had found in the earlier decades,
and still hoped to find, an important traffic artery down the valley to
eastern and foreign markets. Not only railroad lines paralleling tho river
hut high terminal expenses, heavy insurance costs, and uncertainties of
river navigation account for the failure of the river.^
Tonnage on the Upper Mississippi was falling off rapidly in the
last part of the century "but the number of steamers moving between St. Louis
and Illinois River ports increased from nine in 1886 to fourteen in 1899.
Many of these, however, carried no cargo but served as towboats for barges.
And they were unable to maintain the Illinois River tonnage. From l88l to
1891, St. Louis receipts from the Illinois River dropped from 160,555 tons
to 31,190.2 The largest -part of the decline was in the movement of flour
and grain. In respect to wheat and flour St. Louis and tho River unquestionably suffered from the shift in the center of wheat production to tho
northwest with the resulting decline of Peoria as a milling center. Corn
traffic, however, virtually ceased to move to St. Louis by river and this
loss can only be attributed to diversion to railroads. Livestock and meat
traffic also left the River as Peoria declined as a livestock center and
refrigerator cars wore made available for fresh meat traffic. Other commodities, important in the seventies, which contributed to the disappearance
of Upper River traffic were salt, coal, hry, lumber, butter and cheese.
On the Missouri River little more than experimental trips were
being o p e r a t e d . 5 The secretary of the Merchants1 Exchange is noting as
early as 1878 that Kansas and Nebraska grain goes to "markets north and
east of us1 . Ho notes that low water on tho Mississippi diverted much of
the western crop that might otherwise have come to St. Louis but the
failure of the Missouri River to provide a usable transportation facility
to St. Louis created an original diversion to rail carriers that inevitably reduced lowor river tonnage. Chittenden declared that by 1880
Missouri River navigation was "dead beyond the hope of resurrection, at
least within another century"^

^uick, H., American Inland Waterways (1929), p. 123.
2state of Illinois, The Centennial History of Illinois (1918-20),
Vol. IV, p. 3U6.
5cf. Improvements of the Missouri Rivor, Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 31 (1908), pp. 182-3.
^St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1878, p. lb
5chittenden, H. M., History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the
Missouri River (1903), p. b23.




62

Commerce and Industry, 1870-1910

Though it was handicapped "by the slowness of rail construction
in Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and New Mexico, St. Louis rather
rapidly re-established itself in its western and southwestern trade area
as decline in the importance of river transport constricted its trade
area to the north. From 1S73 to 1883 the western trade by rail gained
about forty percent with eastern traffic increasing by smaller amounts
and river traffic showing no gains or actual declines.-*By the end of this ten year period the Missouri Pacific or
Southwest System was organized2 consisting of a great trunk-line network
of 9,757 miles through the Southwest. This road was the most important
channel of trade for St. Louis bringing in forty-three percent of the
city's railroad receipts and carrying out fifty-four percent of rail
shipments for a total of nearly five million tons. To show that "end-toend" computations were comonplace for his day and could lead to some
strange descriptions, the secretary of the Merchants* Exchange figured
that "were these cars made into a train from San Francisco via El Paso,
the locomotive would be 200 miles east of St. Louis before the caboose
left its starting point"."'
As late as 1905 it is evident St. Louis still had one major
trade concern - the Southwest. The commercial interests of the city had
their official publication in the Annual Reports of the Merchants1 Exchange
and for 1905 this publication expressed very definite satisfaction in the
building up of rail mileage in the Southwest:
"There were more miles of railroad constructed the last
year than in 1902 and out of over 5,000 miles built in the U.S.
in 1903, over 2,000 miles were constructed in the Southwest.
The preliminary report shows the construction in this territory
to have been as follows:
Arkansas
Indian Territory
Louis iana
Missouri
Oklahoma
Texas
Total

263 Miles
it
319
it
446
!!
250
1!
653
!t
371
2,302 Miles

^St.Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1883, pp. 34-5
The System was comprised of the parent road, and its branches and
the Wabash; St. Louis & Pacific; St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern;
Texas & Pacific; International-Great Northern; Missouri, Kansas and Texas;
Central Branch Union Pacific; Galveston, Houston & Henderson; and the
various branches of these roads,
3st. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1885, p. 31
2




63
These new lines are of special importance to this city
as they add to the wealth and "business influence of St. Louis
and open up new country for development, which is practically
all tributary to this market. Some of these new roads are
of special importance to St. Louis, as the new line of the
Frisco, down the west bank of the Mississippi Eiver, opening
a new route to Southeastern Missouri, Memphis and the
Southwest."1
The make-up of the commerce of St. Louis shows no fundamental
change throughout this whole period from the Civil War to 1910. Near the
turn of the century the leading articles in the trade of the city are
grain and cattle, flour, drygoods, groceries, boots and shoes, tobacco,
hardware, beer, and a number of articles which were also the backbone of
the pre-Civil War commerce. As St. Louis manufacture developed and as
the national industrial pattern changed and brought new materials and
products to the fore, St. Louis commercial houses inevitably added new
products to their sales lists but the changes were not revolutionary.
The city kept the old fundamental characteristics of an important
commercial entrepot in the great agricultural area of the Middle West
and Southwest.
The Merchants' Exchange in 1883 presented one of its
occasional reports on "Business in Leading Articles" and with few exceptions the items might have been those appearing in a similar list before
the Civil War.2
Three reports on the volume and money value of leading articles
for three years around the turn of the century show the continuance of
this same basic similarity.

ist. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 190?, p. 92.
2




St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1888, p. 20.

64
St. Louis Commerce in Leading Articles
1898
Tobacco, manufactured (lbs.)
Grain receipts (bu.)
Flour manufactured (bbls.)
Flour received (bbls.)
Lead received (86$ pigs)
Cattle received (number)
Hogs received (number)
Sheep received (number)
Cotton receipts (bales)
Coal received (tons)

61,255,250
54,273,212
1,054,875
(unreported)
2,183,012
795,611
2,136,328
477,091
986,195
(unreported)

1908

1903
80,875,428
68,894,986
1,112,316
2,840,695
2,407,605
1,209,121
1,785,873
565,836
577,582
6,534,785

72,759^588
70,967,740
965,832
2,763,700
1,998,370
1,293,564
3,199,922
724,781
675,842
7,365,091

$78,000,000
50,000,000
45,000,000
(unreported)
56,ooo,ooo
35,000,000
25,000,000
17,000,000
21,500,606 '

$70,000,000
65,000,000
53,000,000
47,000,000
43,600,00b
57,000,000
27,700,000
22,361,640
19,000,000

Money Value of Sales
Groceries and related lines
Dry goods and notions
Boots and shoes
Lumber
Tobacco and cigars
Hardware, shelf and heavy
Furniture & related lines
Beer
Drugs and chemicals
Steel castings, machine shop
and foundry products
Woodenware
Vehicles and implements
Railway supplies
Paints, oils and white lead
Hides
Electric supplies
Railroad & street cars (mfr.)
Paper, stationery & envelopes
Soap and candles
Furs
Plumbers' supplies

$55,000,000
55,000,000
56,000,000
10,000,000
46,000,000
20,000,000
22,500,000
20,000,000

27,000,000

5,000,000
12,000,000
21,500,000
15,000,000
(unreported) 25,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000
11,000,000
(unreported)
7,000, 'ooo
(unreported)
(unreported) 15,000,000
6,950,000
(unreported)
(unreported) (unreported)
(mire ported)
5,060,006'
(unreported)
3,000,000

(unreported)
7,500,000

18,500,000
18,000,00.0
16,006,000
15,000,000
12,000,000
11,500,000
"Id, 000,000
9,000,000
9,000,000
9,000,000
7,560,000
7,500,000

Source: St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Reports of
1898, 1903 and 1908.
The list presented in the 1898 report is a very limited one
and the lack of figures on a number of items is probably due in most cases
to this fact and not to the absence of an important sales volume. In
addition to the above articles there are, in 1903, for example, sales




65
ranging "between two and seven millions In such articles as millinery,
confectionery, stoves and ranges, saddlery and harness, hats and caps,
window and plate glass, tin and enameled ware, "bakery products, glass and
queensware, dry plates, carpets and wool.
Only a few new items of importance appear among these leading
articles. Sales in 1908 ranging between nine and fifteen millions for
railway surjplies, steam railroad and street railway cars, and electric
supplies, reflect the very considerable development of St. Louis activity
in lines of commercial activity that developed largely after the Civil
War. However, the bulk of the items are old in the roster of St. Louis
commercial activity although they have been tremendously enlarged.
The grocery trade with its sales of seventy million in 1908 had
its origin with the beginning of Laclede's Settlement. By the forties the
offices and warehouses of wholesale grocers and jobbers were everywhere
apparent along the waterfront streets. Even in its small beginnings as a
business supply industry for the fur traders and the small lumbering and
mining communities of tho West the grocery trade was the backbone of the
commercial life of the city. And its volume of sales in the later years
of this period place it in the forefront of the city's commerce and gives
St. Louis a leading role among the nation's wholesale grocery centers.
By 1882 the trade of the city was larger than that of any other city in
the country except New York. Thirty general wholesale houses were handling
thirty million dollars of sales In a great variety of food products and
their sales were supplemented by the business done by a number of specialty
houses handling, in some cases, only an individual commodity.^ The wholesale merchandising of tea, for instance, was revolutionized as five or six
firms came to make tea their whole stock in trade, employing their own
tasters and sorters and importing their tea supplies direct. The same
specialization was later in coming to coffee merchandising although St.
Louis continued to hold its place as the largest interior coffee market
in the world. Its shipments In 1882 were twenty-five percent greater than
those of Chicago, Cincinnati or New Orleans^ and the city was receiving
"about one-eighth of the entire Rio crop".^ By 1903 the immense roasting
plants of the city challenged the lc-ad of oven Now York as a coffee
market. Trainloads of Brazilian coffee were arriving at St. Louis loaded
from shipboard at New Orleans. In addition to its roasted products the
city became en outstanding jobbing center for green coffees selling these
produces over an oven larger area than that covered by general grocery
sales.

^S. F. Howe and Co. (ed), Yearbook of the Commercial, Banking and
Manufacturing Interests of St. Louis (1882-3), pp. 104, 163.
F. Howe and Co. (od.), Yearbook of the Commercial, Banking and
Manufacturing Interests of St. Louis, (1882-3), p. 163.
^Overstoltz, Henry, The City of St. Louis: Its History, Growth and
Industries (i860), p. 25.
^cf., St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1903> p. 64.




66
Sugar, "bread and crackers, "butter and cheese, fruits and vegetables, and a great variety of items were also important in the wholesale
trade of the city and contributed to the healthy growth of the city's
grocery trade. Butter was brought in mainly from Illinois, Wisconsin and
Iowa in refrigerator cars and stored in the refrigerated warehouses of the
city wholesalers from whence it was sold over a wide area in the Southwest
stretching from New Orleans across to New Mexico with some shipments going
to California. Cheese also came mainly from the same sources, very little
coming from Missouri, and was distributed over the same trade area. Near
the turn of the century the St. Louis butter trade was challenged by the
rising popularity of oleomargarine and butter sales declined somewhat as
wholesalers, possibly rather belatedly, were "now compelled to handle 'oleo'
as their trade demands it".
In the eighties and nineties the city added materially to its
trade as it became a general market for both home grown and foreign fruits
and vegetables. Its location is advantageous for jobbing the early fruits
and green vegetables of Arkansas and Texas and its produce merchants have
also become important in the marketing of fruits, vegetables and nuts from
Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Florida.2 In the handling of
pecans and peanuts St. Louis in IS9S claimed the position as the leading
market in the world so dominating domestic jobbing of these products that
shipments distributed from St. Louis to Richmond and other Virginia points
passed through districts in which the nuts were grown. The major sales,
however, were made to Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco
with some going even to New York City.
This varied grocery and produce trade developed and gave healthy
support to a variety of food industries in the city. The leading ones and
the healthy growth they enjoyed are shown in the following Census figures on
value of manufactures.
i860
Bread and bakery products
Confectionery and ice cream
Coffee and spices
Soap and candles
Canned and preserved products
Other food preparations
Total

1909

$ 2,575,350
1,158,183
568,000
1,607',541
906,850
30,540

$ 8,623,641
3,848,422
9,513,595
3,437,735 (l900)a
992,000
4,454, 774

$ 6,846,766

$27,432,432

a

Not reported separately for 1909; this figure not included in
total for 1909.
Source:

U. S. Census of Manufactures for 1880 and 1910.

1st.Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1895> pp. 218-19.
2

cf. St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1908, p. 259.




67
The importance of St. Louis in coffee manufacture is reflected
in the nine million dollar value reported for coffee and spices in 1909 an item that grew tremendously after 1880. The rise of the city as a
candy manufacturing center has also been a very substantial one. By 1890,
for better grades of confectionery it was an outstanding center with a
trade extending "to the east as far as Ohio, to Minnesota on the north, and
to the extremities of the south, southwest and west".-1- In 1888 three
companies sold over fifteen million pounds of candy over this territory.
And the trebling of the value of candy manufactured in the city from 1880 to
1909 reveals a continued expansion of large manufacturers and distributors.
A great variety of food products are to be found in the unclassified general grouping of the Census. The wide sales territory developed, by
many specialty lines is well illustrated by the rise of the Dodson-Hils
Manufacturing Company. Starting in l88l this company produced a variety of
food products such as catsups, mustard, spices, baking powder, flavoring extracts and syrups and honey which inside of ten years it was marketing in
thirty-eight states and also in South America.2
*

During this
St. Louis Wholesalers
Merchants1 Exchange.
considered the city's

whole period a continued expansion of the market of
and jobbers is apparent in reports of the St. Louis
However, severe competition is reported in what is
natural trade area, the Southwest.

"These heavy sales of groceries from St. Louis are in the
face of the keenest possible competition, a competition that
is not felt in any other line of manufacturing or jobbing. This
competition is from the largo number of jobbing houses that are
located in the smaller towns of the Mississippi Valley. Thus we
find well equipped wholesale grocery houses at Joplin and Springfield and Carthage, Missouri, in nearby Illinois towns as Cairo,
and through Arkansas. This is all direct St. Louis territory
and to maintain their prestige there, the St. Louis jobbers are
obliged to keep their profits down to the minimum and St. Louis
is thus made the lowest priced wholesale grocery market in the
U. S."3
Sections of Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska might seem to be as favorable a trade are a for St. Louis food products a.s the Southwest but merchants
of the city maintained few salesmen in the territory and apparently allowed
the trade to go by default to local jobbers and Chicago firms.

-'•St.Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1888, p. 38.
cf., Kargau, Ernest D., St. Louis in Eruheren Jahron (1893),
pp. 428-30.
3 s t . Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 19033 p. 63•
2

^Osgood, C. N,, Some Phases of the Commercial Development of
St. Louis (1892), p. 10.




68
Another of the large items in the commerce of the city, the grain
trade, tstarted as soon as early farming in nearby Missouri and Illinois
developed small surpluses. After the Civil War gnd on to the present, the
large volumes of grain gathered into city elevators and milled or shipped
on to domestic and export markets have made St. Louis one of the important
grain centcrs of the country. Wheat and corn have comprised the "bulk of
outgoing shipments through the whole period with oats increasing markedly
in importance after 1900.
Average Annual Grain Shipments From St. Louis
(in thousands of "bushels)
Year
1870-74
1875-79
1880-84
1885-89
1890-94
1895-99
1906-64
1905-09
1910-14

Wheat
6,880
11,067
17,282
12,86b
17,877
12,131
23,599
19,391
26,430

Corn

Oats

Eye

Barley

5,119
8,051
14,815
18,427
25,184
20,190
18,362
18,979
13,073

3,068
2,662
3,261
4,489
5,586
5,504
11,343
19,072
15,690

152
404
404
447
659
504
' 736 '
413
234

115
213
156
279
159
82
213
278
172

Source: Appendix B.
As a grain shipping center St. Louis shows a very satisfactory
growth. Much of the story of the city's grain trade is tied up with the
efforts to utilize the Mississippi as a channel for the important export
trade in wheat and corn. The improved condition of the mouth of the river
in tHe seventies aided these efforts "by reducing shipping costs from St.
Louis tj Liverpool via New Orleans from fifty to thirty-two cents a
"bushel. The St. Louis Grain Association was organized in part to help
divert the export grain trade from Chicago to the river route. Early
efforts to "build up this trade were on the whole very successful hut by the
later years of the century the river route was failing St. Louis badly.
River shipments to New Orleans helped the position of St. Louis a,s a grain
center very materially in the late eighties when around fifteen million
bushels of wheat, corn, rye and oats were annually moved south by the
river. With some annual irregularities the volume declined through the
last decade of the century to reach a figure of 2,750,000 bushels in 1903 less than five percent of total shipments from St. Louis. ' It Is obvious
that the very healthy growth in shipments of grain from St. Louis grew with
the developing railway network. Inevitably this rail network not only aided the city but offered assistance to other centers to the detriment of St.
Louis. This is noticeable in the movement of the western grain trade to
the Gulf ports. As the river offered no advantages to shippers, grain
moved by rail line direct from interior points to the Gulf.
Nearly half
IState of Illinois, The Centennial History of Illinois (1918-20),
Vol. IV, p. 365.
~
— •
2
St.Louis Merchants1 Exchaiige Annual Report of 1905, p. 119.
^St.Louis Merchants1 Exchange Annual Report of 1893» p. H I .




69
of the grain exports from New Orleans was moving from Kansas points directly
to that city and the great bulk of this movement was for the account of St.
Louis dealers. As a result, it would have moved through St. Louis had river
transportation offered sufficient inducements.
Before 1919 detailed traffic data for inland waterways are not
consistently reported by the Chief of Engineers for the U. S. Army. The
figures for that year reveal how the Mississippi System which had at the
most before the Civil War merely shared the dominating inland transportation
role with the Great Lakes had now fallen far behind. While grain shipments
alone from Chicago and Calumet Harbors stood at 1,268,000 tons tho river
carried in both inbound and outbound shipments less than 55,000 tons for
St. Louis.
With its trade in wheat St. Louis developed a healthy milling
industry which in the late seventies made the city the major flour producing center of the country and gave St. Louis brands of flour an excellent
reputation not only in eastern markets but in the principal European
marketing centers. The industry was an early one, there being twenty-two
small mills in the city before the Civil War.
The war, cutting off the Southern market, gave the industry a, set
back, but afterwards there was a steady growth. By 1869 the city mills
were producing a million barrels of flour and country mills tributary to
the city (at Alton, Belleville, and other towns in southern Illinois) were
sending in 1,200,000 more. In the next decade tho production of the city
mills doubled, while that of the country mills also increased considerably.
By 1880 the St. Louis millers were in a very strong position. The city
mill-owners were reaching out into the tributary territory, buying or
building mills there. Tho foreign trade in flour was also well developed.
Much flour was being sent down tho Mississippi for export to Cuba and the
West Indies, and millers were selling their flour in British markets
directly, without the intervention of middlemen in the Atlantic ports. A
system of flour inspection had been established and their grades were being
generally accepted in foreign markets.
For some time St. Louis millers were unable to believe that any
flour could be better than their red winter wheat flour. And they were
able to persuade themselves for some time that the spring "patents" were a
passing fad. When they found the demand continuing to shift toward spring
wheat flours, they equipped their own mills to handle soft winter varieties.
The first St. Louis "patent" flours were not a success and while St. Louis
millers were correcting their processes, Minneapolis took the lead in the
eighties. In i860 the two cities were about equal but in the next ten
years, Minneapolis millers quadrupled their production while St. Louis'
output remained stationary.
In keeping with the times, and unquestionably with at least
intermittent justification, St. Louis milling interests blamed their situation on discriminating freight rates. Various steps were taken by them to
gain rate reductions. However, tho relative weakening of the St. Louis
position in tho flour industry rested on more fundamental factors than rate
discrimination. Most important was the change in public demand, a shift
to corn-growing in the territory to the north and west of St. Louis and a




70
decline in the quality of winter wheat due to continuous cropping and
possibly to climatic changes.1 The St. Louis millers turned in a limited
measure in the late nineties to the milling of the hard winter wheat of
Kansas but the city never became distinctively a hard-wheat center. It was
too far from the growing regions and there were too many strong milling
companies In Kansas City and Kansas by 1900.
In 1883 New York was the leading city in shipments of flour with
4,437,000 barrels and was followed closely by Chicago, Minneapolis and
Milwaukee who shipped virtually the same amounts, the range for the three
cities being between 3,999,000 and 3,985,000 barrels. St. Louis was in
fifth place with 2,751,182 barrels. From this time on Minneapolis forged
ahead in flour manufacture and left her competitors far4 behind. Figures
for 1907 are representative of the comparative manufacturing situation for
the first decade of the Twentieth Century and show very convincingly the
dominance of Minneapolis.
Flour Manufacture in 1907
(thousands of barrels)
Minneapolis
Buffalo
Kansas City
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Chicago
Source:

13,660
3,108
1,974
1,289
1,189
1,000

Duluth-Superior
Indianapolis
Detroit
Nashville
C inc innat i
Philadelphia

715
610
558
509
472
450

St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports 1900-1910.

In the late nineties, the city of Buffalo set out on a determined program of wharf and elevator improvements to build up the city as a
grain and milling center and the results are apparent in the strong second
position held by the city in 1907. Ten years earlier her flour manufactures were less than half of the 1907 figure and although the city stood,
behind Milwaukee, in third place, her lead over Kansas City, St. Louis find
Chicago had been inconsequential.^
As for St. Louis, 'in view of changing demands for flour and
shifts in wheat growing areas the city hardly needed to apologize for its
relative place.
From 1880 to 1909 the value of manufacture for "Flouring and
Grist Mill Products" reported in the Census of Manufactures for St. Louis
City shows a decline from $13,783,000 to $3,551,000 and thereafter increases to $10,025,000 in 1929. Unfortunately, the figures before 1929 are

^Kuhlmann, C. B., The Development of the Flour Milling Industry
in tho United States (1902), pp. i 8 3 - i s 8 .
2
St. Louis Merchants* Exchange, Annual Report of 1898, p. 151.




71
reported only for St. Louis City and do not show the value of manufacture
in the whole industrial area and do not show whether the declining city
figures from i860 to 1910 reflect a loos for the whole industrial area or
merely an increasing tendency of St. Louis milling to locate outside tho
limits of the corporate city. However, the 1930 Census credits tho St.
Louis Industrial Area with a value of manufacture for flouring and grist
mills of $25,956,000 and for the city proper only $10,025,000 so it is
obvious that over half the milling industry Is located in the immediately
surrounding counties comprising the industrial arca.
Distribution from St. Louis of drygoods and clothing over a wide
market area developed out of the position of St. Louis as a supply center
in early days. Cotton goods and other drygoods had been an important item
in the New Mexico trade and a varied and active jobbing interest grew up,
the growth being particularly marked in the late seventies and eighties.
The large number of jobbing firms which were found in the city after 1880
led to a keen rivalry and to very favorable conditions for buyers both in
respect to prices offered and the completeness and variety of available
stocks.1 Theso advantages were so marked that for a number of lines, such
as the major brands of heavy cotton goods produced in the South, the supply
houses of St. L'ouiSgWere able to obtain goods under very favorable terms
from manufacturers.
By the late eighties the territory of dry goods sales
reached over the whole West to the Pacific Coast, in the Northeast to Ohio
and in the Southeast to F l o r i d a . 3
In the wholesale distribution of hats and caps the position of
the city houses was if anything a more commanding one than in drygoods.
Jobbers of caps and soft hats made St. Louis the leading supply center for
the whole country although little or no manufacture was undertaken In the
city. Sales were particularly important in the South and Southwest but
the southeastern states such as Georgia, Florida and Alabama drew on the
city for large supplies and sales were heavy throughout the Pacific Coa.st
region from California to Washington.
Not only the jobbing but the manufacture of men and women's
clothing developed on an important scale. As the market for finer dress
fabrics developed in the South and West, St. Louis benefited and by 1909
was manufacturing nearly five million dollars of women's clothing. However,

lln 1882, St. Louis had twice as many wholesale drygoods firms as
Chicago and nearly as many as New York with total capital invested being
in exccss of ten million dollars. (cf. Yearbook of the Commercial, Banking
and Manufacturing Interests of St, Louis, 1883)
2 Ore an, G. W., Commercial and Architectural St. Louis (1888),
pp. 242-3.
^Kargau, Ernest D., Mercantile, Industrial and Professional
St. Louis (1902), pp. 559-585.
^Leonard, J. W., Industries of St. Louis {1887); St. Louis
Merchants' Exchange, Annual Reports of 1880-1910*




72
it was not until tho late twenties that the present very important women1s
clothing industry reached production values comparable to men's wear. A
fourfold increase from 1909 to 1929 in women's clothing raised production
to twenty-two million dollars while something better than a doubled production of men's clothing placed that industry at almost the identical
figure.1
No St. Louis industry Illustrates the manner in which an important manufacturing industry developed hand in hand with a large jobbing
business as well as does the boot and shoe industry. Before the Civil War
a healthy small-shop production of boots and shoes existed consisting of
something over one hundred producers with a total annual production of
$400,000 and sales per establishment of about $3,600. The Civil War helped
this line of manufacture somewhat but in 1880 Its output valued at
$1,635,000 left it far behind the leading centers in Massachusetts.
However, an important wholesale trade was developing in the city handling two
to three times the volume of boots and shoes manufactured in the city.
Houses whose attention was particularly directed to the north and west
carried all grades up to the best while others specializing in the southern
market undersold Chicago with cheaper grades. Jobbing sales for outside
manufacturers increased materially in tho lato eighties and early nineties
and with this growth, partly as a cause and partly as an effect, there came
a spectacular growth in city manufactures.
George Warren Brown who sold shoes in the St. Louis territory in
the seventies was responsible for the start of tho modern shoe industry
of St. Louis. Starting with a $12,000 capital In a loft on St. Charles
Street he achieved, a quick success and others followed.
From 1883 to 1893
city production increased from one half million pairs to four and one half
millions and within a few years the city also saw construction of the
first factory built in the West for the production of rubbers.
In the first decade of the century more production capacity was
added to the boot and shoe factories of St. Lou,Is than to those of any other
city in the country. By the end of the decade, twenty-seven companies wore
operating plants within the city and an additional seventeen within tho
industrial area or in nearby t o w n s . 5 Aside from their very much enlarged
output the St. Louis firms handled thousands of crises of o as torn-made shoos
to make St. Louis the largest distributing center in the United States,
selling not only over the whole country but supplying also sizable markets
in South America, Cuba, tho Philippines, and Europe.
About seventy-five
percent of the sales were made from St. Louis manufacture which had. grown

""

lu. S. Census of Manufactures; See Appendix I.
cf. Vogt, Herbert J., The Boot and Shoes Industry of St. Louis
(1929), PP. 34 ff.
^Stevens, W. B., St. Louis The Fourth City, 1?64-1909 (1909), p. 650.
^St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Re-port of 1893, p. 39.
5 In 1939 when census figures reported the value of shoe manufacture
for St. Louis City and for the St. Louis Industrial Area, the latter was
only slightly above the former standing at $23,925,581 as against
$21,159,692.
6st. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1908, p. 34.
2




73
from its production value of $1,635,000 in 1890 to $33,970,000 in 1909.
In tho first world war the nation called on the industry for greatly
enhanced supplies and the value of St. Louis production increased to
$88,554,000 "but returned to its former levels after the war.1
The large sales of tobacco by St. Louis, reported as forty-five
million dollars in 1908, rested in considerable part on local manufacture
of tobacco products. In the late years of this period about three-quarters
of the trade came from locally manufactured tobacco and one-quarter from
manufactures at other points,'"* The tobacco trade and industry are oldtimers in the city. Five "manufactories" were doing a thriving business
ten years before the Civil War, adding $67,000 of their products to the
manufactured tobacco coming to the city via the Ohio for logal consumption
and for distribution over the wide trade area of St. Louis.J For several
decades after the war the industry enjoyed in very large measure the two
advantages of particular value to its"growth - cheap labor supply and
location near tobacco-raising country. For some decades the labor situation was so "favorable" that it lead to serious exploitation of tobacco
workers who were required by many St. Louis firms to take their pay in the
form of cigars and by peddling them to obtain tho money for their labor.
In the early eighties this undesirable practice was disappearing rapidly,
largely as a result of the St. Louis strike of 1879, without any noticeable
injury to the growth of the industry. About this same time Missouri
tobacco cultivation, formerly a large and favorable source of leaf tobacco,
was declining particularly in the grades needed for the St. Louis industry.
By the late eighties the crop had fallen to half of former years and onehalf to two-thirds of this reduced crop was of grades suitable only for
the export market and so contributed to the city's trade but not to its
manufacture.^ The decline in cultivation was partly caused by a growing
lack of newly cleared land for tobacco culture, by the increased profitability of other farm crops as rail transportation became available, and in
certain sections, by an influx of immigrants from Germany or the northern
states who had no experience with tobacco cultivation." The St. Louis industry was compelled to turn to Kentucky and Virginia for part of their
supplies as efforts to induce Missouri farmers to increase their planting
of thepopular "White Burley" were only moderately successful. In addition,
some supplies were Imported from Cuba and Porto Rico for the manufacture
of cigars. In spite of these necessary readjustments the tobacco business
flourished particularly in the nineties end the city was producing not far
from one fifth of the total national production by the end of this period.'

^ e e Appendix I.
St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1908, p. 235.
^Missouri Republican, Annual Reviow, 1851«
^Missouri Bureau of Labor Statistics, l88l, pp. 23-29.
^Orear, G. W., Commercial and Architectural St. Louis (1888), p. 232.
6
cf. Sauer, Carl 0., The Geography of the Ozark Highland of Missouri
(1920), p. 120.
7 C f. Land, John E., St. Louis, Her Trade, Commerce and Industries
(1882), p. 46;
Leonard, J. W,, Industries of St.• Louis (1887), p. 45;
St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports 1880-1910.
2




7k
In spite of its favorable setting in the corn belt St, Louis was
relatively slow to develop as a livestock and meat-packing center. In the
first ten to fifteen years after the Civil War, trade in livestock increased very slowly and the city lost further ground to Chicago. During
the first four years only 387,66^- head of cattle were received at St. Louis
while 1,378,158 went to Chicago.1 As a result, the leading place in the
industry which had been held by St. Louis before the war now moved to the
lake city. One of the major advantages of Chicago lay In the excellent
facilities of Its Union Stockyards while St. Louis possessed nothing more
than a number of small scattered yards of three or four acres each. More
extensive rail connections to the Southwest and the building of two large
stockyards gave the city its opportunity to improve both as a livestock
market and as a slaughtering center. The National Stockyards in East St.
Louis was begun in I87I by a group of eastern capitalists and the St. Louis
Union Stockyards in 187^. The main yards of the latter, located in St.
Louis proper, covered over thirty acres and possessed good rail facilities
which allowed stock to be unloaded directly into the pens. Branch yards
on the east side of the river were built and utilized for holding stock to
be shipped to eastern markets. With the possession of needed stockyard
facilities St. Louis was in position to take advantage of "good transport
connections in all directions" and its location near the corn belt."
"Pork houses" gave St. Louis before the Civil War one of its
largest industries, only flour milling and sugar refining among the developing industrial plants had. products of greater value. Throughout this whole
period from 1870 to 193-0 the industry wa.s a flourishing one although the
relative importance of the city In the national industry was adversely
affected by the growing importance of the northwestern corn belt in hog
raising. This change tended first to shift the industry to Chicago and
later to western Missouri. By the late nineties St. Louis was in fourth
place in number of hogs slaughtered annually as shown by the following
figures for the 1897-98 season.
Number of Hogs Packed in the West

Chicago
Kansas City
Omaha
St. Louis
M ilwaukee (inc 1. Cudahy)
Indianapolis
C inc inno.t,i
Ottumwe
C love land
St. Joseph

1897-98

1907-8

6,747,265
3,184,586
1,570,050
1,238,8.10
1,002,034
988,559
635,143
627,049
540,002
423,500

6,295,410
3,574,835
2,261,626
1,853,279
1,424,464
1,755,669
605,375
696,029
757,976
1,873,917

Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange Annual Reports of I89S and 1908

^Saraghan, C. V., History of St. Louis 1865-1876 (1936), pp. 120 ff.
^Hoover, E. M., Location Theory and The Shoe and Leather Industries
(1929), PP. 1^0-1:
St, Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1908, p. 228.



75
By 1907-8 Chicago had lost some ground to rival cities hut maintained its very clear lead over Kansas City which along with St. Louis and
a number of the major centers showed sizable growth. The gain made by
Indianapolis was almost enough to double that city's slaughter but the
spectacular advance was made by St, Joseph in moving from tenth place in
1897-98 to fourth place. Specific reasons for shifts made by the industry
are extremely hard to evaluate but the mag or general causes are to be found
in changes in corn and hog raising, the concentration of the packing business after the nineties into the hands of four large companies, end in
transportation factors, particularly the relation between rates on live
hogs and on hog products.
Until 1890 St. Louis had only one major beef packing company,
Nelson Morris and Co. The addition in the nineties of the plants of the
Mound City Packing Co., the St. Louis Dressed Beef Co., and Swift and Co.
gave shippers assurance of finding a good market for livestock in the city
and contributed to the marked improvement In tho position of the city as a
meat packing center which occurred in tho years after 1900.
From 1880 to 1890 the packing industry in the city increased its
output from eight millions to twelve million dollars annually and did not
show any material advance again until after 1900. But then, in ten years,
value of production doubled in the city and a very considerable growth
occurred in the industrial area around the city. The relative amount of
the St. Louis packing industry found in the corporate limits and within the
whole industrial area is shown in Census figures for 1929. In that year a
value of manufacture of eighty-six millions Is reported for tho city proper
and one hundred and eighty-three millions for tho St. Louis Industrial Area.
The receipt of over 688,000 bales of cotton in the city in 1908
marks another important commercial activity of tho city. From the early
days after the Civil War St. Louis merchants showed a very considerable
interest in cotton and had hopes of making the city a leading cotton
market.2 In the seventies the opening of northern Texas and much of
Arkansas by rail connections to the city resulted in sharp increases in
receipts of cotton. Tho appearance also of the St. Louis Cotton Compress
Company in 1873 with storage capacity for 200,000 bales and excellent rail
connections marked §n outstanding stop forward in the growth of the city
as a cotton center."' In l88l the company purchased nearly forty acres of
land on the line of tho St. Louis San Francisco Railroad, west of Grand
Avenue, and erected a range of warehouses which doubled their former capacity. Also of comparable importance was the appearance of the Peper
Cotton Compress Company in 1871.

let. Buzz-ell, Rowenr, Sconomlcs of Hog and Hog Products Traffic Flow
(1544) (a staff study of Tho Board of Investigation and Research.)
2ff
Some Notes on Missouri", Soribnex 1 s Month 1y, Vol. VIII (July I87I*)
?Howe, S. F. & Co. (od.), Yearbook of the Commercial, Banking and
Manufacturing Interests of St. Louis (1885}, pp. 36-59.




76
From the beginning and continuing through this whole period,
the city has acted as a middleman with through shipments making up increasingly large proportions of the gross receipts. As the following
figures show, this tendency is particularly marked after 1885 and has been
an increasingly strong feature of tho trade in the more recent years.

Year
1871-1875
1876-1880
1881-1885
1886-1890
1891-1895
1896-1900
1901-1905
1906-1910

Through
Annual Average Annual Average Annual Avge.
Shipments
Gross Eeceipts Through Shipments Net Receipts As Percent Of
(bales)
(bales)
(bales) Gross Receipts
115,688
359,579
377,459
552,415
665,008
847,174
666,901
595,246

58,800
105,555
143,817
294,924
489,-089
684,824
564,311
497,697

76,887
236,025
253,642
257,491
173,919
162,349
102,590
97,549

34?
31
38
53
74
81
85
84

Although the years 1896-1900 show the largest annual gross
receipts, the volume in more recent years of through shipments has been
fairly well maintained and the decline in gross receipts is attributable
to a lessening portion being handled in tho city. The year in which St.
Louis storage and compress companies handled the largest volume was 1880
when net receipts were 358,000 bales. Through the eighties the annual
average was approximately 270,000 bales and thereafter declined rather
seriously, the annual average for the next ten years being 180,000 bales,
and In the first decade of the present century 90,000 bales.^ Various
factors explain this decline. Improvement in the rail network eastward
from cotton growing areas going hand-in-hand with tho development of a
number of interior markets in the cotton growing areas inevitably had
adverse effects for St. Louis.2 Cotton had been principally concentrated
at a few interior points, such as St. Louis and Memphis, and at the ports,
including New Orleans and Galveston. It was shipped by tho farmer-producer
to commission merchants at the larger markets. Gradually the marketing
organization changed so that the producer sold his cotton at the nearest
station to local buyers and at a number of interior points facilities for
handling the crop wore developed. As a result St. Louis along with other
of the former concentration points found^markedly reduced volumes coming
to the city for storage and compressing.-'

•*See Exhibit J.
ftPhe New Orleans Cotton Exchange v. Tho Illinois Central R. Co., et al,
2 I.C.B. 777(1890).
^Application of Rates on Cotton to Gulf Ports, 123 I.C.C. 685 (1927)-




77
The early brewing industry of St. Louis was well supported by
residents of the city before the Civil War4 and was producing in the
neighborhood of $300,000 of malt beverage annually. Change in manufacturing and marketing, however, soon made a national industry out of the
start made by local brewers, The industry was producing $4,536,000 worth
of products in i860 and by the end of the following ten years had. nearly
quadrupled this annual figure. Although it was a relatively late arrival
in the field the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association is very closely
connected with this phenomenal growth. This company was the first to
build ice houses throughout the southern states and the first to utilize
refrigerator cars for a wide distribution of Its products.1 The company
was also the first to introduce bottled beer in the United States. This
innovation not only virtually destroyed a formerly large importation of
English and German beers but built up an important export of American beers
mainly in the hands of tho Anheuser-Busch Company. By the late eighties
this company was enjoying larger sales than any single brewery in the
world. Before the turn of the century the cityTs exports to Mexico and
South America had grown tremendously and constituted a large part of the
total imports of beers and ales in these countries.2
A very definite concentration of production in a small number
of strong concerns is noticeable in the industry. From 1889 to 1899 growth
brought an increase in the number of brewing establishments from twenty-two
to twenty-eight but in the next decade while the value of products increased from $11,674,000 to $23,147,000 the number of establishments
dropped to ten. As a result, although St. Louis was not the largest producer of beer in the United States it could boast of the presence of a
number of firmly established and growing companies and, among them, the
largest brewery in the world.
A great variety of other commodities are important and show
very satisfactory growth in the period from 1870 to 1910. Woodonware was
one of these and jobbers in this line sold their products in every state
of the Union and to Canada and Mexico.
Their sales were consistently
large enough to place half the business of the whole country in their
hands.5
And the St. Loiiis dealers were successful in making the transition from the handling of wooden washtubs, buckets and the like to
galvanized iron products and in building up related jobbing lines in
cordage, brooms, wrapping paper, paper bags, stove polish and so on
through an extensive list.

%owe, S. F.. (ed.), Yearbook of The Commercial, Banking and Manufacturing Interests of St". Louis (1S85), pp. 89-9b.
2st. Louis Merchants! Exchange, Annual Report of 1898, p. 62.
3st. Louis Merchants? Exchange, Annual Report of 1903, P* bj.
^St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1898, p. 51.
5St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1903, p.
Annual Report of "1908, P . 59.




78
For some reason St. Louis by the forties had attracted a
flourishing patent medicine business and with its early start went on
to become a leading producer and distributor of patent medicines and
drugs. Annual sales in the neighborhood of fifteen million dollars
toward the close of the century put the industry among the most flourishing found in the city. Among its seven large wholesale houses were
several of the largest in. the country. Only New York stood above the
city in value of manufacture or in volume of sales.1 The value of
drugs and chemicals manufactured in the city trebled from i860 to
I89O and after a decade of relatively small growth went on to reach over
fifteen millions by 1919. Much of the later growth is in production of
chemical products and reached a figure of $39,615,000 for the whole
St. Louis Industrial Area in 1929.
With the largest wholesale drug house and the greatest chemical
manufacturing plant In the country the city was known over very wide
markets:
"Three wholesale drug houses supply most of the Western,
Southern and Southwestern States with drugs, chemicals and
proprietary medicines and the manufacturers in these two
branches, of whom there arc a great number in the city, have
also an extensive trade all over the country aside from the
export business, which inc3ixa.es Central and South America,
Mexico, the Islands In the Pacific, Europe and even
South Africa.
Along with its groat variety of expanding wholesale and jobbing
activities St. Louis managed to stage on important revival in its standby of early days, the fur trade. Its seven and a half million dollars
of fur sales In 1908 came from invasion of a new field - the purchase of
the furs of remote sections of Canaida and of Alaska - and gave the city
the foremost position as a market for northern f u r s . 5 a few years later
it was. able to supplant London as an auction market for American seal
skins.

Leonard, JohnW., Industries of St. Louis (1887), p. b8.
%argau, Ernest D., Mercantile, Industrial and Professional St. Louis
(1902), p. 422.
5st. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1Q08, p. 2U5.
1

^St. Louis Daily Record, Fifty Years of Civic Progress, l890-19^0>
p. 10E.




79
A summary of the large and varied commerce of St. Louis shows
St. Louis jobbers and wholesalers drawing on raw material areas and supplying market areas over a large part of the nation and in various foreign
countries. Large receipts of grain, lead, cattle, hogs, cotton, and coal
are drawn in major part from the rich middlewest and southwest with tobacco
in large volume coming from the southeast and in smaller amounts from
foreign sources. The sales of many products reveal the wholesalers and
manufacturers of the city selling with success from the Atlantic to the
Pacific coasts. The reports and records of the c ommercxa 1 interests of
St. Louis for this whole period, as found in Chamber of Commerce reports,
in a variety of annual surveys, and particularly in the regular reports
of the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, show St. Louis merchants to be generally satisfied, in fact, rather complacent, with their ability to market
over very wide areas after the rail network was built through Arkansas and
into Texas and Louisiana. The concern of the St. Louis commercial and
manufacturing Interests in the development of a southwest rail system is
merely one evidence of their concentration on markets in Missouri and
Kansas and in the area to the south of these two states. Even after river
transportation fell on bad days the Lower Mississippi area continued to
hold the first attention of St. Louis. However, the foregoing description
of the varied trade and manufacture of the city shows its manufacturers
and jobbers reaching over the whole nation and Into foreign countries for
its markets.
The city's market areas seem to expand almost without effort and
without meeting restricting handicaps In every region save one. tod
strangely, that one Is a closely contiguous market In Missouri, Illinois,
Iowa and Nebraska. The success of St. Louis merchants in southwestern
markets apparently led them to give relatively small attention to certain
portions of these states. Chicago's shipments of merchandise to the
northern half of Missouri, for example, wore approximately equal to tho
shipments from St. Louis. Similarly, in southern Illinois the trade was
divided between the two states. In northern Illinois and Iowa, however,
St. Louis houses maintained few salesmen and the trade largely went to
Chicago. In much of this area St. Louis suffered no handicap In respoct
to rail rates or service and apparently tho preoccupation and success of
St. Louis merchants in markets to the South and West account for their
relative lack of interest in Iowa and Illinois markets.1

Icf. Address of C. N. Osgood published by the St. Louis Commercial
Club In 1893.




Rise and Decline of Iron Production

The record of this period shows St. Louis enjoying a generally
sound economic growth in spite of several very apparent handicaps in the
form of the failure of the river on which the city relied so much; the
slowness of rail development in Missouri and the states to the immediate
south and west; and the failure of St. Louis merchants to push vigorously into markets in Illinois, Iowa and even northern Missouri. While
these factors unquestionably limited the city's growth a far greater
handicap to rapid industrialization developed out of the failure of the
St. Louis iron industry. After enjoying an early successful growth
blast furnace production in the industrial area virtually disappeared
and its disappearance undoubtedly injured St. Louis in all the related
lines of the iron and steel industry.
In the years immediately following the Civil War St. Louis
appeared to be in very fortunate condition in possessing large iron ore
deposits in Missouri. A broad ore belt crossed the state from the
Mississippi on the east to the Osage in a direction nearly parallel to
the Missouri River. The most spectacular deposit was at Iron Mountain in
St. Francois County, ninety miles south of St. Louis.1 In the seventies
Iron Mountain was of more than local importance. Andrew Carnegie used
ore from this mine in his first furnaces in the Pittsburgh district and
the first steel plant In the Chicago district was located at Joliet instead of Chicago because the former was closer to Iron Mountain.
To St. Louis these rich ore resources promised much. However,
the early operation of blast furnaces was greatly handicapped by the
Inaccessibility of suitable fuel, St. Louis County coal produced a poor
and unprofitable iron and In some furnaces Indiana coke was used. In
1868 various Illinois coals were substituted with a considerable degree
of success.3
In 1878 Carbondale coal from southern Illinois began to be used
and after thorough tests proved completely satisfactory.
In spite of early troubles with fuel, important additions were
made in 1870 to the iron works in South St. Louis and four establishments
went into operation producing about 28,000 tons of pig iron. Half of this
production was sold in St. Louis and the balance went to Chicago,
Evansville, and other points.
^Conrad, Howard (ed.), Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri (1901)
Vol. Ill, p. 383.
^Engineering and Mining Journal, Iron Mountain Mine, Long Idle, Again
Produces (June 23, 1923), P. U21.
5Iron Age, St. Louis, Its Place in the Steel Industry (Oct. 19, 1916)
p. 877.
^Scharf, J. Thomas, History of St. Louis City and County (1883),
p. 1269.




81
In 1874 seven blast furnaces with a capacity of 50,000 tons were
being operated in Missouri using charcoal as fuel. In addition four plants
using bituminous coal and coke were being operated with a capacity of
110,000 tons. The end of the decade found ten bituminous coal and coke
furnaces in operation with a capacity of 224,000 tons and four charcoal
furnaces with a capacity of 57,50^ tons. The major producers were all
operated by St. Louis companies. Their output of Bessemer pig was converted into steel mainly in St, Louis.1
There were six rolling mills and steel-works in St. Louis in the
early eighties. The Vulcan was built in 1872 as an iron mill, but was
changed to steel production in 1676. During 1882 the Vulcan consumed
100,000 tons of pig-iron, producing 90,000 tons of steel rails. The other
works included the Granite Iron-Rolling Mills built in 1879 now a part of
the National Enameling and Stamping Company's works; the Laclede Rolling
Mills, the Melmbacher Forgo and Rolling-Mills now a part of the American
Car and Foundry Company's Granite City works; the St. Louis Steam Forge
and Iron-Works abandoned in 1908; and the St. Louis Bolt and Iron Works
still In existence.2
During the 1884 depression all the Missouri furnaces suffered
severely. Of the seventeen in the state only three remained in blast, and
several were shut down permanently. The depression merely brought to the
forefront two basic handicaps under which the St. Louis heavy steel industry labored. First, inferior and costly coal continued to check
progress of iron making. In 1885 excellent Bessemer pigs were produced at
Carondelet but only by using Connellsville coke e xc lus i vo ly. Se c ond ly,
the supposedly great wealth in ore resources proved disappointing. In the
first years of the nineties it was believed that earlier estimates of the
amount of ore at Iron Mountain had been markedly exaggerated and that the
Mountain was nearly "worked out". Such, however, was not the case although
easily accessible ores may have been in smaller supply than was estimated.
The basic fault lay in tho relative high cost of Missouri ores. The flood
of ores from Lake Superior mines to Chicago revealed the weakness in the
St. Louis situation. Ore could not be supplied to the city at prices comparable to those prevailing et Great Lakes points. By 1890 the Chicago
area became the third largest stool producing area in the country. Gary,
and Indiana Harbor were established exclusively as "steel towns". The
Pullman Company built its own city in South Chicago to manufacture railroad cars, while huge blast furnaces and open-hearth furnaces wore built
up in the Chicago area.
By 1893 the once great iron industry of St. Louis had become a
passing phenomenon. In that year tho leading company of Missouri dismantled its coke furnaces at Iron Mountain, its charcoal furnace at
Pilot Knob, and its Bessemer steel plant at the former of these points.

^Iron Age, St. Louis and Its Place in the Steel Industry
(October 19, 1 9 1 ^ p. 879*
—
—
2lbid., p. 880.




82
For sixteen years, 1893-1908, there was no production at Pilot Knob, and
Iron Mountain output shrank from a high of 269,480 tons in 1872 down to a
low of 8,000 tons. Missourifs rank as an iron producer fell from sixth
among the states in 1870 to thirteenth in 1890 and thereafter dropped to
a place of comparative unimportance. Small operations were continued by
the St. Louis Blast Furnace Company but in 1912 this plant was closed and
all pig Iron processed In the city was shipped in except for the small
production of the Sligo Furnace Company. Thus for the major part, the
manufacture of semifinished and finished steel products in St. Louis
Operated under the handicap of -purchasing pig iron from distant sources.
St. Louis thereby not only largely lost Its blast furnace industry but unquestionably suffered by inevitably slower growth of the light steel
industries.
In spite of its lack of pig iron production, St. Louis did
manage to develop a varied semi-finished and finished steel industry. By
1885 barbed wire mills, stove foundries, boiler works and other establishments engaged In the secondary manufacture of iron and steel were in full
operation. In that year one of the largest pipe foundries in the country
was at St. Louis, but the concentration of furnaces making foundry irons
at Chattanooga and Birmingham encouraged the transfer of this industry to
the latter point. The lack of blast furnace output in St. Louis crippled
the St. Louis industry. It cost less to make pipe at Birmingham and to
ship it to St, Louis than to ship Birmingham pigs to St. Louis for manufacture of pipe.Between 1870 and 1890 the production of foundry end machine
shop products showed great promise. The Fulton Iron Works established in
St. Louis in IS52, and still In existence today, owned and operated its
foundry and machine shop at 2nd and Carr Streets until lgl2 when It built
Its present plant. Tho company was a pioneer builder of steamboats end
stationary engines. It continued the manufacture of engines and began a
very successful manufacture of sugar mill machinery about 1890 and
stationary Diesel engines in lyl2.2
The manufacture of street cars is one of the most interesting
industries In St. Louis tartly because of its humble beginnings and partly
because Its rapid growth snowed the ability of the city to overcome the
fundamental handicaps of its lack of cheap pig iron. Car manufacture had
Its beginning In 1858 when a skilled ornamental painter by the name of
Andrew Wight established a shop for building omnibuses. Wight subsequently
abandoned the manufacture of omnibuses and began to turn out street cars.
By 1897, the company had grown and was known as the Browne 11 Car C o P

^Clark, Victor, H i s t ^ F ^ ^ n u f a o t u r e s in the U.S. (1928),
Vol. II., p. 346.
2
In 1923, it was reported that Fulton sugar mill machinery was in use
in nineteen foreign countries and Fulton machinery installed in tho West
Indies, Mexico, and Centr .1 and South America, ground more than fifty percent of the sugar c .ne produced "in th^se countries.
^Conrad, Howard Lewis, ed. Encyclopedia, of the History of Missouri
(1901), Vol. IV, p. 180.




8>
St. Louis street cars were shipped to New Zealand and Japan, as well as to
many of the leading European countries. The healthy growth of the Industry is apparent in the record of the late period, 1910-1940, shown in
Part III of this study.
In the last decade of the 19th century, St. Louis industrialists
invested capital in the other two members of the "tri-oities" - Granite
City and Madison. Both of the cities had been corn and wheat centers until
near the present century. In 1891, Wm. F. Niedringhaus bought 3,000 acres
in Granite City, and the National Enameling and Stamping Co., along with
scores of two-family flats, was constructed in 1892. Shortly afterwards,
the Niedringhaus interests built a rolling mill and in 1893> the American
Steel Foundry was established. Workers, merchants, and real estate
dealers gravitated to Granite City overnight. The Enameling and Stamping
plants at that time were dependent upon eastern mills for their main
materials, such as sheets and tin plate, which, of course, involved
appreciable transportation charges. Having in mind the advantages of a
low priced scrap market and the reduction of transportation charges, a
small open-hearth plant with finishing mills was started in conjunction
with their other plants. The steel plant of the National Enameling and
Stamping Company in 1908 had an annual capacity of 150,000 tons which was
Increased in 1916 to 300,000 tons.1
Madison, second largest of the tri-cities is like Granite City
a product of the steel industry. One of the important steps in its development came with the building of the American Car and Foundry plant in
1891^
The manufacture of basic open-hearth steel castings for which
St. Louis claims first place, had. its foundation in new conditions, and
had not been related to the earlier iron and stool industry of the state.
Although St. Louis gained its reputation as a leading steel casting center
during World War 1, the Industry had its origin in tho latter part of the
I87O-I9IO period and may properly be described In this period. The
following table shows the finished tonnage of basic steel castings
annually produced in tho district, including St. Louis proper, Granito
City, East St. Louis, and St. Charles.
Annual
Production,
American Steel Foundries
American Steel Foundries
Commonwealth Stool Co.a
Scull In Steel Co.
Warren Steel Casting Co.
St. Louis Steel Foundry,
St.Louis Frog and Switch

(Granite City)
(E. St. Louis)

1,200

St. Louis
Co., St.Louis

a

Now General Stool. Castings.

^Federal Writers Project, I l l i n o i s , p. 489,



78,000 tons
54,000
60,000
54,200
4,500
_2^300
255>200 tons

8k
In 1915f the country's production of "basic castings was 333,103
tons, less than 100,000 tons greater than that of the St. Louis district.
In September, 1916, at its Granite City plant, the American Steel Foundries
made 6000 tons of castinge, the largest individual plant output ever
attained in one month "by a. bas^e open-hearth foundry. In addition to the
steel made at St. Louis foi c asting^, thp Laclede Steel Co., at its
Alton works, produced 75,0OC tona of ingots annually. It is noteworthy
that this great steel castings industry has had Its entire growth almost
within two decad.es.- The Granite City plant of the -American Steel
Foundries was built in Ib^k; the Scullm Steel Company's first operations
as the Scullin-Gallagher Iron -nd Steel Co. began in 1899; and the Commonwealth Steel started In 1902.
The rolling mill industry of ot. Louis, a direct descendant of
early developments, is centered in the American Car and Foundry Company's
Helzabacher mill and the National Enameling and Stamping Company's Granite
City plant. In addition to these organizations, the active rolling mill
operators in the St. Louis district included, during World War I, the
Laclede Steel Co., the St. Louis Screw Co., and the Hirsch Rolling Mill
Co. Plant capacities and products of each in 1915 were:^
Tons
National Enameling and Stamping Co.
Granite Iron Boiling Mills, built 1879.
Black and galvanised sheets
Granite Citv Steel Works, built 1895.
Ingots, billets, sheet and tin plate bars,
universal, plates, blue annealed find black sheets
American Car and Foundry Co.
Madison Car Works.
Steel and wood freight cars
Cast iron ear wheels
Madison Rolling Mill, built 1Q00.
Merchant bars
Mo. Car end Foundry Works.
Steel and wood fi eight cars
Cast iron wheels
Gray iron-c as ting a (tons)
Holmbacher Forge & Rollings Mills, built 1858.
Bar, rod and band iron
Laclede
Co.
MadisonSteel
Works,
built 1911-12.
Rail-carbon bars
Alton Works, built 1913.
Ingot, b-ullets, bars, strip steel
St. Louis Screw Co.
Rolling mill built 191^-15.
Merchant bars
Hirsch Rolling Mill Co., - built 1900.
Merchant and refined iron and atool bare
Total rolled production

2k,000

120,000

15,000
350,ODD
60,000
20,000
250,000
17., 500
60,000

000
100,000

45,000
30t000
1*79,000

-^Today there are three oven hearth furnaces in the St. Lou is area:
Scullin, American Steel Foundry, and General Steel Casting.
2Iron Age, St.Louis. Its Place in the Steel Industry, (Oct 19, 1916),
!
pp. 877-880.
"



85
The St. Louis district developed in the late years of the
1870-1910 period and "brought to full development in the twenties a considerable mill capacity for the production of such rolled forms as plates.,
standard structural shapes up to and including 10 inch sizes, merchant
bars end small shapes, reinforcing bars, tin plate, black, blue annealed
-and galvanized sheets, stripes, tie plates, etc. No rails or tubes were
rolled in the region.1
The territory which the mills of St. Louis area considered as
their logical distributing area extended east to Indianapolis, north to
the central part of Illinois, the southern part of Iowa and Kansas, all of
Oklahoma, Arkansas, and the northern part of Texas.
Steel requirements of St. Louis represented one of the largest
outlets of locally produced steel. Some of the products Into which this
material entered before World War I or In the twenties were enameled raid
stamped ware, furnaces, stoves, ranges and heaters, auto bodies and parts,
electrical machinery and metal products of various descriptions. St. Louis
obtained and continued to hold a high position in American manufacturing
of enameled were. The stove and range industry in which St Louis continued
to have pre-eminence by a wide margin as to both market extent and volume
of output over any other city in the country absorbed a large tonnage of
blue annealed and black sheets. The stove industry became particularly
well-entrenched in Belleville.
Next to Trenton, St. Louis become the largest manufacture of
wire rope in the country. One company in St Louis making wire rope
originated the colored strand nox\r used widely to identify different grades
and qualities of wire rope. By 1924, St. Louis was reported as supplying
20 percent of national wire rope production.2 The range of other articles
of wire became extensive, consisting of wire mesh, industrial screws of all
kinds, fencing, grill and lattice work,, etc.

lln 1924, the most important branch of the casting industry in the
St. Louis industrial are a was the manufacture of open hearth steel castings.
About 350,000 tons were produced annually, the greatest part being in the
form of castings for steel railroad cars, locomotive tender frames,
bolsters, freight and. passenger cor frames, driving wheels, etc.
%ackert, A. 0., Iron Tr^de Review (Aug. 21, 1924) supplement,
PP. 5 - 6 .




86
Value of Manufactures, 1870-1910

The over-all commercial standing of St. Louis is only partially
a product of its growth as an industrial center. Nevertheless, most of
its varied jobbing and wholesale activities rest in large or small measure
on production in the city or in the industrial area. As the foregoing
narrative of Its commerce and industry shows, the city developed in this
period to the point where it could claim many "firsts":
"The biggest chemical manufacturing plant in America
and the country's most important cracker factory are at St.
Louis; it has the largest tobacco factory in the world and the
biggest brewery in America,. The largest shoe house in the
world is located In St. Louis, and this city is one of the most
Important points in the world for the manufacture and wholesale
output of shoes. It has also the largest horse and mule market,
and its saddlery market is one of the leading marts in the
world. In the manufacture of white lead and jute bagging this
city takes the lead. It has the largest brick works; the
largest sewer pipe factory and the largest electric plant on
the continent, and it manufactures more street cars than any
city In the world, shipping the same to all sections of the
globe."1
In the period under consideration, 1870 to 1910, St. Louis manufactures showed large increases which were in general consistently developed except in one decade - the nineties. In the first decade, the seventies, census figures show a decline in the total value of manufacture for
%i860 relatlve to I87O but the figures for 1870 are not trustworthy.
Certain of the figures were challenged when 1880 returns were recorded,^
and probably the best estimate for value of manufacture for 1870 would be
arrived at by taking the growth from i860 to 1880 and assigning two fifths
of it to the sixties (as was done earlier with population data) and three
fifths of it to the seventies. This would give a figure of fifty-eight
million dollars for 1870 and a growth of thirty millions in the preceding
ten years. This growth of over one hundred percent (the i860 value of
manufactures being reported as $27,000,070) appears to be the maximum
that can reasonably be assumed in view of all other industrial and commercial records of the city for the decade of the sixties.

•Hfhito, Marian A., The Greater West (1906), Vol. II, p. 6l.
2 c f. Stevens, Walter 3., St. Louis The Fourth City, 1764-1909
(1909), p. 989.
— —
^The Census figures reported the following value of manufactures
of St. Louis - i860 - $ 27",000,070
1870 - 158,761,013
i860 - 104,383,587




87
Assigning a manufacturing value of fifty-eight millions to 1870 leaves a
growth of approximately forty-six millions for the seventies to reach the
census figure for 1880 of one hundred and foul' million dollars.
The decade of the eighties is one of very marked growth for the
city, the decennial census of manufactures showing value of manufactures of
$114,333,000 in 1880 and $229,157,000 in I89O. The largest gains wore made
in manufacture of steam and street railroad cars, men's clothing, foundry
and machine shop products, furniture, malt liquors, brick, stone and tile
masonry, printing and publishing, meat packing, and tobacco products. The
increases shown among this group ranged between three millions and ten
millions, and, assisted by smaller gains in a number of other fields, gave
St. Louis a greater Industrial growth than was made by the nation as a
whole. The city turned out 2.1 percent of the total value of manufactures
in the United States in 1880 and 2.4 percent in 1890.
Comparison of 1890 and 1900, however, shows no such comparable
gain. For the city, manufactures increased only one percent but from this
time on figures limited to the city proper increasingly fail to show the
growth of the St. Louis area. The Census of Manufactures noted this fact
in 1900 and it has been of growing significance since then:
"That the increase in the value of St. Louis is small,
is due, in part to the removal of manufacturers to mere favorable localities, for fuel and transportation, notably to East
St. Louis, Madison and Granite City, manufacturing points
situated opposite St. Louis on the Mississippi River, and to
the West."

•^It Is obvious that comparisons of the relative importance of various
cities in 1870 rest on very unfirm ground. If the foregoing estimate for
the city is approximately correct and if major mistakes are not present in
figures for other cities, St. Louis began the period with value of
manufacture well below that of tho leading cities.




Now Yorka
Philadelphia
Boston
Chicago
Cincinnati
a

$393,800,193
322,005,000

111,381,000

92,519,000

78,906,000

Baltimore
St. Louis
Buffalo
Cleveland
Detroit

$ 59,220,000
58,000,000
27,447,000
27,049,000

26,218,000

Figuros are for the county in which designated cities
are found.; New York includes figures for New York,
Kings, Queens, and Richmond Counties.
H- -f
S. Census ef Manufactures, 1900, Part 3.

88
For the St. Louis Industrial District the growth from 1&90 to
1900 is slightly under two percent. In general the nineties were poor years
for the nation as a whole and the small gain male in the St. Louis Industrial District is almost precisely the/o shown by the figures for national
manufactures.
In addition to the injury done by generally depressed business
conditions was the specific injury done to St. Louis by the 1896 tornado.
On May 27, 1896 in the short span of fifteen minutes a tornado struck the
southwestern section of the city, rushee over Lafayette Park and left a
path of destruction nearly seven miles long. Eighty-five hundred buildings
were reported as suffering varying degrees of damage and debris from destroyed property was piled high in the s t r e e t s T h e monetary loss to the
city was placed by various estimates all the way between ten million and
one hundred million dollars.^
Some spectacular gains were still made by some individual industries during the nineties, particularly noticeable in tho following list
being the nearly four million dollar growth of the boot and shoo Industry
and the ten million
in of tobacco production.
Value of Msnufacti-.ro
1390
1900
Boots and Shoes
Steam and Street Railway Cars
Women's Clothing
Coffee and Spicks
Iron and Steel
Tobacco Products

$ 4,927,000
5,641,000
1,718,000
2,466,000
1,716,000
14,354,000

$ 8,742,000
8,757,000
3,714,000
4,766,000
3,274,000
24,411,000

Ratio
1900 to 1890
177
153
21o
193
191
170

Except for the iron end steel industry, material growth was
shown by all these Industries in tho eighties and their largo increases as
shown above are healthy continuations of the gains made in the previous
decade. Analysis of the situation in which the iron and steel industry
found itself by 1&90 has explained tho relatively low production of that
year. Growth through the nineties m^rks the successful reorientation of
tho industry toward finished end semi-finished products.

^The St. Louis Industrial P.rea consists of St. Louis City,
St. Louis County in Missouri and St. Clair and Madison Counties in Illinois.
^Shoemaker, F. C., Missouri Day By Day (1942), Vol. I, pp. 3o3-4.
f• Devoy, John, History of the City of St. Louis (1898), p, 6lj
Haas Publishing and Engaging Co., Photographic Views of the
Great Cyclone at St^^lliis (1896), p. 1.




89
The small gain made in total manufactures during the nineties
partially accounted for by losses exceeding one million dollars in five
industry groups.
Amount of
Value of Manufacture
Decline
1890 to 1900
1890
1900
Boxes, Paper and Wood
Flouring and Grist Mill Products
Liquors, Malt
Masonry, Brick, Stone and Tile
Saddlery and Harness

$ 1,797,000 $
12,456,000
16,186,000
9,125,000
2,804,000

413,000
4,004,000
11,674,000
5,134,000
1,495,000

$ 1,384,000
8,452,000
4,512,000
3,989,060
1,309,000

The rise of Minneapolis as the dominant flour milling center of
the country is unquestionably a factor in the loss suffered in flour milling. However, the Census of 1900 ascribed it to the opening up of new
territory and the development of "country mills".
"The decrease in St. Louis 1890-1900 is accredited to the
opening up of less developed country to the west and southwest
by railway facilities, which connect the great grain-producing
centers with the markets by shorter freight lines. One milling
firm in St. Louis, which prior to 1890 shipped annually 150,000
barrels of flour to Texas, now manufactures 1,200 barrels daily
in that state. In other instances the manufacture of flouring
and grist mill products is carried on either near markets or the
grain centers".
Decennial census figures do not show flour milling in St. Louis
city regaining its 1890 output until 1919. However, in 1929, the first
year for which comparisons can be made, flour manufacture in the St. Louis
Industrial District was valued at $25,956,000 and In the city Itself at
$10,025,000 showing that only forty percent of the industry of the St. Louis
area is located within the corporate limits. As a result, the value of
flour manufacture for 1900 end 1909 for the city proper, the only figiu^e
available, seriously understates the actual importance of the area.. And
relative to previous years also understates tho importance of 1900 and 1909
production since increasing proportions of the industry had been developing
outside the corporate limits.^
The decline in building materials appears to be nothing more than
a reflection of the influence of general business conditions on building
construction. The number of building permits issued in St. Louis for brick
and stone buildings was high from 1888 to 1897, the annual average being
nearly
A sharp drop occurred in each of the succeeding three years,
reaching a low of 1330 in 1900.

^.S. Census of Manufactures, 1900, Part 2, p. 475.
In 1929, 6l percent of the manufacture of flour in the St. Louis
Industrial Area occurred outside the limits of the city.
3st. Louis Merchantsf Exchange, Annual Reports of 1898, 1893, 1913*
2




90
Building materials showed a continuation of the drop of the
nineties in 1909 "but a substantial recovery for 1919. And manufacture
of saddlery and harness apparently has stabilized at the lower level of
one and one-half million dollars reached in 1900.
Although the value reported in 1900 for malt liquors shows a
serious decline the census in commenting on the decrease stated that St.
Louis showed an increase in the physical volume of production and in the
number of operating establishments.
Lower sales prices accounting for
the drop in value of production came from two sources. Cost of materials
in 1900 relative to 1890 was nearly twenty percent lower due to very low
prices for barley, hops, and corn. And production costs were very favorably affected by improved methods of manufacture allowing more thorough
extraction and by more efficient refrigeration.
In general the first decade of the present century was one of
general prosperity for the major industries of the city with fifteen showing particularly large gains.
Value of
Increase Over
Manufactures
1900
in 1909
boots and Shoes
Bread and other Bakery Products
Boxes, Paper and Wood
Carriages and Wagons
Coffee raid Spice, Roasting and Grinding
Food Preparationa (not otherwise specified)
Foundry and Machine Shop Products
Leather Goods
Malt Liquors
Lumber Products
Patent Medicines
Printing and Publishing
Slaughtering .and Meat Packing
Tinware, Coppervare and Sheet-Iron Ware
Wirework; including Rope and Cable

$ 35,970,000
8,624,000
2,165,000
6,328,000
9/jib, 000
4,455,000
14,591,000
5,143,000
23,1V7,000
7,307,000
6,81+6,000
17,16^,000
26,601,000
5,060,000
3,323,000

$ 25,228,000
3,806,000
1,752,000
2,294,000
4, 748,000
3,165,000
2,963,000
4,247,000
11,473,000
4,437,000
4,247,000
7.,:M,ooq. .
13,658,000
2,880,000
2,309,^00

No specific figure was reported for tobacco products but from
1900 to 1919 the industry increased the value of its production from
$2^,^11,000 to $45,9U8,000 and it is probable that a considerable part of
this twenty million dollar growth had occurred by 1909.
A number of other industries showed smaller gains than those
recorded by the above but the bulk of the city1 s advance from $233,630,000
to $328, ^-95,000 was made by this group. Gf ins made by the boot and shoe
industry and meat packing are particularly striking and show the ability
of the city to sell its products on a nation-wide scale. Malt liquors with




S. Census of Manufactures, 1900, Part 3.

91
an increase of eleven millions showed marked recovery from the not altogether satisfactory position of 1900. The increase shown for coffees
and spices, equal to nearly one hundred percent of the 1900 production,
appears a^ll the more remarkable when it is remembered that the 1900
figure represents a doubling from the previous decade.
Only two of the major industry groups for which data are reported show declines. Flour milling dropped from four to three and one
half millions showing the continued effects of adverse factors appearing
in the previous decade. Brick, and stone building materials dropped
from $5,134,000 to $3,778,000 in spite of a relatively high number of
building permits for brick and stone buildings in 1908 and 1909.1
Attention has previously been drawn to the importance of production in adjacent counties. For total manufactures this production was
of markedly increasing importance after 1890. City and county production
figures making up the total for the St. Louis Industrial Area show the
following totals and percentage distribution of the totals in the decennial
census from 1880 to 1920 except for 1909 which is not available.
1880 !
1890 j
1900
1919
(in thousands of dollars)
rotal Value of Manufacture
St. Louis Industrial Area

139,519

253,299

295,599

8l.9/o
O.k
12.h
5.3

90. %

7 9.($
0.5
lb.2
6.3

1,358,839

Percentage Distribution of
Total Value
St. Louis City
St. Louis County
St. Clair County
Mad is on C ounty
Source:

(Mo.)
(Mo.)
(ill.)
(111.)

5.8
2.6

6k.2°jb
2.0
20.7
13.1

U. S. Census of Manufactures.

It is obvious that after 1890 the city proper with Its fixed
corporate limits and high property values from relatively crowded conditions was not growing as rapidly as the industrial area surrounding it.
Growth in the industrial area Is particularly marked In St. Clair County
after 1890. The drop in percentage Importance of this county in 1890 was

^St. Louis Merchants 1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1915> p. 67.




92
occasioned "by no change in its value of production while tho total for the
whole area was increasing. However, very mar Iced growth occurred after
1&90 to raise the county's figure from seventeen millions in that year to
over two hundred and eighty millions in 1919%
The 1929 Census for tho first time reported In full on manufacturing for tho St. Louis Industrial Area and shows for most of the
individual industries the values for the city proper and for the whole
industrial area,. Only sixty-six percent of the total manufactures of the
area is a product of plants in the city proper. The following industries
are those in which a material proportion of the development has occurrod
outside the limits of the city.

Industry

Percentage of Total "Value of
Manufactures of Industrial Aroa
Outside of St. Louis Proper

Boxes, Paper and Wood
Men's Clothing
Flouring and Grist Mills
Food Preparations
Foundry and Machine Shops
Furniture
Iron and Stool
Lumber and Planing Mills
Paints and Varnishes
Stoves and Furnaces
Soap and Candles
Tinware, Copperwaro, Shoot-Iron Ware

30
61
55
30
17
92
15
ho
ho
5 3
5 8

The development of the flour milling and iron and steel
industries has obviously taken place to -x very large extent in the surrounding counties "but for all the above major industries as well as for many
smaller ones important plants hr-va boon built in the surrounding industrial
fire a.




C>
^ J
PART III

Commerce ana Indus try 1910-1945

General Business Conditions.

The years 1910 to 19^-5 exposed the economy of the nation to
possibly greater stresses than any comparable period in history. Two world
wars, a major boom and a uniquely severe depression were crowded into the
thirty-five years. These inevitably had very Important effects for the
commercial and industrial activity of St. Louis but review of the period
shows that the basic economic pattern of the city was not profoundlyaltered. The city continued, to show a large preoccupation with Its jobbing
and wholesale trade, a widely diversified industry, and a generally less
violent change in population and economic Indices than is apparent in many
other large cities of the country.
The relative economic stability of St. Louis is apparent in
various indices of business activity. Annual figures needed to construct
a general index of economic activity for the St. Louis Industrial Area are
not available and it Is necessary to use more limited Indices with care.
Nevertheless, at least an approximate reflection of the city's reaction to
all the dynamic forces of the period are apparent In the following graph of
debits to deposit accounts of Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis.
For tho years prior to 1919 > debits to deposit accounts have not
been assembled, but bank clearings from 1910 to 1919 reflect clearly the influence of the war. With 1910 figures as 1005 bank clearings show a steady
increaso to 1913 when the index was 111. Generally uncertain business conditions in 1914, particularly after the outbreak of war in Europe, reduced
the 1914 index to 104 from where it climbed each year to roach 220 in 1919•
In this latter year and the following year St. Louis showed tho trade conditions which were common over the country as a whole. In spite of the continuance of government restrictions through most of 1919 and a severe railwaycar shortage, business boomed as consumer buying pressures accumulated during tbe war were released and as a. spectacular monetary inflation occurred.




Ok
Index of Debits to Deposit Accounts of Federal Reserve Banks - 1919-1929
(Index - 1919 = 100)
240
;
<
:
:
r

1919

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

The calamitous "break In commodity prices in 1920, led "by sugar prices vhich
had been artificially inflated, hurt St. Louis not only in immediate losses
from tremendous cancellations of speculative orders but from the general
loss of buying power in the raw material areas constituting an important
part of the city's market. As with other crops, cotton planting In 1920 was
done at very high cost and the crop was marketed after sharp price declines.!
Planters took enormous losses which along with credit difficulties led to
stagnation in merchandising in the cotton a r e a s . 2 The postwar recovery was
iThe Research Bureau
change of one cent in the
St. Louis trade territory
Chamber of Commerce News,
2

of the Chamber of Commerce has estimated that a
price of cotton changes the buying power of the
by over seventy million dollars. (St. Louis
Aug. 30, 1932)

For discussions on trade conditions see St. Louis Merchants' Exchange,
Annual Reports of 1914-1923.




95
slower "by almost a year in coming to St, Louis than to the country as a
whole and to the three other cities for which Indices are shown in the
above graph, St. Louis shows a fairly steady but moderate growth through
the twenties with the index increasing from 8b in 1921 to 120 in 1929; for
the country as a whole the two comparable indices are 90 and 212. Detroit
showed an advance larger than the national average while Chicago and
Pittsburgh increased somewhat less than the country as a whole but
materially above St. Louis.
The lack of large boom gains in the late twenties allowed St.
Louis to weather the post-1929 depression with much smaller shock than was
the case for the country as a whole or for those cities shown above as making large gains in the late twenties.
The following graph uses the 1929
figures for debits to deposit accounts as 100 and shows the fluctuation
from 1929 to I9I+I.
Index of Debits to Deposit Accounts of Federal Reserve Banks - 1929-19^-1
(Index - 1929 = 100)

1929

30

31

32

33

3^

35

36

37

38

39

^0

The St. Louis Industrial Area ranked seventh in the country in 1931
but advanced to sixth place in 1933 when products valued at $664,584,12^
were manufactured (St. Louis Chamber of Commerce Hews? July 16, 1935.)




in

Probably because it lacked any tremendous boom growth in the late
twenties St. Louis suffered a materially smaller decline between 1929 and
1933 than the country as a whole or the three other cities for which indices are shown. Unquestionably a very broadly diversified industry and
the large importance of the jobbing business of the city also account for
much of the stability shown by the St. Louis index. The increased activity
of the city from 1933 "to 1941 has been very good. It was nearer to its
1929 activity than Pittsburgh or Chicago or the country as a whole in 1941
and it has not shown the Detroit "boom or bust" extremes.
Figures for debits to deposit accounts were placed on a new basis
after 1941 and are not strictly comparable with the data for 1929-1941.
They show the marked increases resulting from wartime production and the
St. Louis increases; while striking, were moderate compared with Chicago
and Detroit and the nation as a whole. From 1942 to 1945 the debits increased 52 percent for the United States, 40 percent for Chicago, 25 percent for St. Louis and 21 percent for Pittsburgh.




Population Trends.
Population in tho St. Louis aro^ shows the same moderate,
apparently stable growth from 1910 to 19^0 as is shorn in tho previous
period I87O to 1910.
Population of St. Louis Industrial District
and Metropolitan District
St. Clair Total St. Louis St. Louis
Metropolitan
County
Industrial
111.
District
Area*
1
119,870
979,163
136,520
1,117,049
1 d<-7 'yyp: 1,335,158
1.293,516
l66.899
_ 1,406,526
1 367,977
)nly, the Metropolitan Aroa
includes a portion of St. Clair, Madison, and M< :woo Counties in Illinois
and a portion of St. Charles County and all of J>t. Louis County and St.
Louis City in Missouri.
Source: U. S. Census of Population.
St. Louis
City
Mo.
1910 687,029
1920 772,897
1930 821,960
19^0 816,048
Year

St. Louis
County
Mo.
82,417
100,737
211,593
274,230

Madi son
County
111.
~89,la7"
106,895
143,830
149,349

The increase for the St. Louis Industrial District of ^27,000 from
1910 to 19^0 is equal to forty-four percent of the 1910 figure, a rate of
growth slightly greater than shown by the total United States population.
In 1910 tho Industrial District contained I.065 percent of the nation's
population and "by 19^-0 this figure had risen to 1.068 percent.
For February 15 1 9 ^ the total civilian population of the United
States was estimated as being 128,730 000 a decline of two percent from the
19^0 figure.2 Comparatively the St. Louis Industrial District made a good
showing. It not only gained sufficient additions to overcome losses to the
armed forces but showed an actual increase over 19^0 of b.2 percent so as
to raise its total to 1.089 percent of the national total.

In Growth of American Industrial Areas (1938), pp. 5^-55, Glenn E.
McLaughlin presented the following data on population growth of 33 industrial areas:
Area
U. S.
Total, 33 industrial areas

1900-10
21. Ofo
32.9

1910-20
l4 .9$
25 .3

1920-30
16
26 .3

1900-30
'61;$
110.3

Chicago area
Detroit
"
Pittsburgh area
St. Louis
"
Los Angeles "
Cincinnati
"
Minneapolis "
Kansas City "

31.5
47.7
35.8
26.1
196.0
13.1
38.4
40.6

2"'• 9
118 .i-119 .6
14 .1
85 Q
8
18 .3
26 .4

32 .8
65 • 7
15 .0
19 .5
135 .8
21 .6
21 .8
25 .1

123.4
^33.6
86.7
71.9
1196.8
49.0
99.5
122.2

X

p
Estimated from registration figures of the Office of Price Administration and reported in Sales Management, May 10, 1946.



98
Commercial Trends 1910-I9U0
The commercial activities of St. Louis continue as in its earlier
history to "bulk large in the total economic life of the community. Before
1929 only estimates of the value of the trade of the city are available but
for that year and several succeeding years U. S. Census figures on wholesale
trade were compiled and show the relatively large place held by commercial
activities in St, Louis economic affairs. Figures include not only transactions of wholesale and jobbing interests but also sales by manufacturers1
own outlets when such are used. Census data for 1939 show that among cities
of over 500,000 population the wholesale trade of St. Louis is large in per
cap?.ta terms and large compared with its manufactures.
Wholesale
Trade
per
Capita
San Francisco
Boston
New York
St. Louis
Pittsburgh
Chicago
Cleveland
Los Angeles
Philadelphia
Detroit
Buffalo
Milwaukee
Baltimore
Washington, D.C.

$2171
PI 21
1738
11*26
1239
1201
1078
mo
803
7^7
702
673
52i+

Ratio of Value
of Wholesale
Trade to Value
of Manufacture a-*1.1*1
1.15
1.86
1.07
.55
.95
.81*
1.05
.71
.1*8
M
.55
' .67
b.36

Value
of
Wholesale
Trade
$1,377,6111,000
1,63^,78^,000
12,95^252,000
1,16^,102,000
832,069,000
i*, 080,1*15,000
9^6,653,000
1,285,265,000
I7622,'I66,O6O
1,304,1*51,000
1*30; 270,000
1*12,000,000
5787628,006
31*7,772,000

-1-Value of manufactures for metropolitan industrial areas.
Source: Census of Business, Wholesale Tirade, 1939*
In terms of the value of wholesale trade, St. Louis ranks eighth.
However this figure in no way reflects tho relative importance of the several cities as a center for wholesale trade for a territory outside the city.
Unfortunately statistical records differentiating between the wholesale trade
going to the city Itself and to market areas outside the city are not available. The wholesale trade per capita for each city, nevertheless, indicates
in at least very approximate terms the relative standing of the cities in
terms of their sales in market areas outside the city:large per capita sales
suggests large sales outside the city if consumption standards are about the
same and if the volume of visitors to each city is of about the same relative
importance to total city population.




99
Although San Francisco is fifth In terms of total value of who.: sale trade a considerable preoccupation w th jobbing and wholesaling is
suggested by its very high sales per capita and by the high ratio of wholesale trade to manufactures. Now York shows its pre-eminence in wholesaling
with the largest value and with a high ratio of wholesale trade to manufactures. With the exception of Los Angeles and Washington the cities
listed below St. Louis show a much greater emphasis on manufacturing relative to wholesale trade than does St. Louis.
The trade pattern of the city was altered very little by the
effects of World War I. The commodities of outstanding importance in the
trade of the city in 1923 are very generally the same as during the previous two decades.
Value of Sales of Leading Commodities
Excluding Grain Products
Groceries & kindred linos
Drygoods & notions
Lumber
Boots and shoes
Tobacco and cigars
Hardware
Railway Supplies
Furniture
Drugs and chemicals
Meat packing products
Vehicles and Implements
Flour;...and mill feeds
Beer
Iron and steel wagon material
Railway and street cars
Woodem-7a.ro
Paints, paint oils, etc.
Bakery goods
Clothing (men's & women* s)
Paper, stationery, envelopes
Stoves, ranges, furnaces
Electric Industries
Furs
Steel castings, foundry.
mmachine shop products
Soaps & candles
Tin, enameled, galvani zed
ware

1903__ _
$125,580,000
fjW, odo, ood
600,000
150,000,000
50.000,000
75,000,000
134,200,000
not reported
50,000.000
45,000,000
210,000,000
70,102,000
3'6,060/660
S6', OOO ; 000
52,600/000""
35,000T000
96,575,000
48,000,000
not reported
15,000,000
25,000,000
24,000,000
25,000,000
25,000,000
26/600/000''
21,500,000
58/666'; 000
not reported not reported
53,000,000
21,500 000
25,000,000
49,048,000
not reported not reported
41,600,000
''17,000/000 ' not reported
not reported
15^000,000
not reported
not reported
15,000,000
30,000,000
9,000 000
12,000,000
22,000,000
not reported
'10,000,000 " 15/6667666" " 17/256,000 '
not reported
10,000,000
10,000,000
7,000,000
15,000,000
62,000,000
6,950,000
12,500,000
27,750,000
4/600,ooo ' I1/606/060 '
16,660 666
20,000,000
60,000,000
7,000,000
10,000,000
30,000,000
5,000,000
5,000,000 ...21,000;000 '
not reported
not reported

11,000,000

110,000,000
41^506^066
42,000,000

Sources: 1903 and 1913 data from St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual
Reports of 1903 and 1913; 1923 data from Greater St. Louis, Jan., 1924,
issued by St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and American Retailers Association.
Those data are estimates prepared by two different representatives
of the commercial interests of St. Louis and probably are only usable for
approximate comparisons. They show, however, that with few exceptions the
leading business lines are the same. The lack of reporting for some items
does not mean, except in the Instance of beer in 1923, a lack of sales or
necessarily even very small sales but a mere failure of the reporting agency
to include the particular line.



100
Through this whole period as in previous periods St. Louis
marketed over the west and southwest not only its own manufactures of
groceries and a variety of foodstuffs hut food products from every section
of the country. Thirty large wholesale hoi s^s handle the bulk of this
business and while they find important markers ~n over a dozen states their
major territory Is found within a 200-mile circle about the city covering
much of Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Illinois
In addition to acting
as the hub for direct distribution of groceries the city is the center for
a number of wholesale establishments that operate through branch houses in
the same distribution territory.^ A number of specialty houses add to the
trade volume in foods.
The city continues to be one of the large centers for manufacture
of jams and jellies which are shipped regularly to thirty-six states. In
1928 ono of these companies shipped forty-four carloads of preserves, jelly
ana apple butter, totalling about one million jars and found a market in
almost every state in the Union.3 The bulk of the shipments wont to
southern states but the whole trade territory extended from Las Vegas, NaM.
in the southwest to Philadelphia and Boston in the northeast. Many other
specialty linos such as pecans, coffee, aa well as a largo candy trade continued to flourish in these later years and to add to the stature they
attained before 1910.
Brygoods, generally ranking second to grocery lines, is marked in
this period by the development of more and more local manufacturing to
support the wholesale distribution which has always been important to the
city. In tho early thirties nearly one quarter of the sales of local
jobbers consist of goods manufactured in their own plants and the trend
toward less dependence on eastern manufactures seems well-established.5
^-Khow St. LouiFWeokly, Nov. 6, 1927 .
%ace, H., "St. Louis - The Wholesale Grocery Center", Greater St.
Louis; (May, 1921).
3Rnow St. Louis Weekly, March 11, 1928.
h
Ibid,, May 1, 1927•
5st. Louis Chamber of Commerce News, April 7, 1931
Greater l5t". Louis, Tfebr-uary 1925)»




101
The same development is apparent in the millinery business of the city. At
the beginning of this period the city could find only two wholesale
millinery establishments within its borders. In the first half of the
twenties, however, marked expansion was apparent. By 1925 more than fortycompanies could be found in the hat trade and in allied lines such as
feathers, frames, linings, etc. While many of these companies were small,
one of them was rated as the largest of its kind in the world. And a trade
territory extending over virtually the whole country was served.
Of considerable- importance to the city is the warehousing and distributing it does for something over two thousand chain or home-owned
variety stores scattered through ten states. A considerable part of the one
hundred million dollar sales of five cent to one dollar merchandise of these
stores is supplied by St. Louis wholesalers.In all the old traditional lines such as boots and shoes, lumber,
tobacco, drugs and chemicals, woodenware, paints, men's clothing, paper and
hardware, the city continued to hold its place suffering less than many
other cities in depression years and building steadily and firmly if not
spectacularly In good years. In various lines innovations are made. From a
position of relative unimportance St. Louis developed as a wholesale flower
center supplying the southwest and southeast. By 1925 this business was
amounting to over fifteen million dollars a year and the city had moved up
from tenth place to fourth among; flower centers of the country.3
One other innovatipn that must not be ignored resulted in a revolutionary change in the position of the city in women's dresswore. For
years many of the dress manufacturers were inadequately capitalized, business was very uncertain, style pirating was commonplace and the city's
claims as a style center had to be very modest as it largely depended on
the oast for styles and for a material amount of the products handled by
city jobbers. Frequently dresses for St. Louis style shows were purchased
in New York. In the depths of tho depression this creaking marketing
structure was completely rebuilt. In conjunction with students in a dress
designing course at Washington University a leading women's wear store
developed the now nationally known "Junior Miss" styles. Close collaboration continues between the Washington University School of Fine Arts and
manufacturers and retailers. A style registration system was organized so
as to prevent style pirating, an exclusive distribution system prevents
duplication of dress copies in any one retail area,, and style shows have
been so revitalized that buyers from eastern centers are common visitors.^
^Greater St. Louis, February 1925,
^Cunningham, B. W., "Variety Stores Now A Major Local Industry", St.
Louis Commerce, Oct. 26, 1938.
3Greater St. Louis, February 1Q26.
} St. Louis Star, December 29, 1928.
4
Grcss, Blanche, The Awakening of> An Industry (19^3).




102
In normal "business years sixty manufacturers of women's, misses,
and juniors1 suits,, coats and dresses are found enjoying a profitable business selling over the whole nation:
"It is literally true that every state in the Union is an
active market for our women's apparel. There are single manufacturers here who have accounts in all states; there are others
whose output goes largely to local or out-of-town jobbers who
concentrate on a more limited territory.
All the states bordering on the Mississippi are good St.
Louis outlets. Missouri and Illinois are the nearest states
and sales in them are most concentrated; but oven in distant
California, women have ample opportunity to purchase St. Louis
made garments." "
Jobbers in tho city handling products of local dross manufacturers and eastern manufacturers were, before the war, doing an annual
business between eight and ten million dollars and employing over three
hundred people.
There are also considerable changes in the relative position of
other products in 1923 relative to the earlier years particularly noticeable being the rise of steel castings, foundry and machine shop products
from $5? 000,000 in 1903 to $110,000,000 \n 1923. Also between the same two
years the percentage change upward is large in drygoods, boots and shoes,
men's and women's clothing the electric industries, furs, and probably In
soaps and candles, ana tin, enamel and metal ware. Also a notable increase
is apparent in lumber sales, reported at $50,000,000 for 1913 and
$13^,200,000 for 1923. Declines of any importance are shown only for the
sale of railway supplies from 1903 to 1913
railway and street cars from
1913 to 1923. Boer sales declined badly even before Prohibition. One large
St. Louis company which sold $18,000,00 of beer in 1913 fell to $6,500,00 by
1919. The arrival of Prohibition was a severe blow to not only the brewing
companies but to the city as a whole, Anheuser-Busch was reduced to making
near beer and Bevo and found neither one profitable.2
Tho grain trade contributed its increases to the growing commerce
of the c i t y during and following World War I. Receipts of wheat for twelve
years ending .in 1923 were at an annual average of 36,981,000 bushels compared with an average of <20,977*000 in the preceding twelve years.3 The
receipt of 48,716*000 bushels in 1921 stood well above the largest annual
receipts between 1867 and 1923; the year 1902 had shorn receipts of
30 667j 000 and the next largest war had been 1891 with 25,^23,000.
Shipments of wheat from 1910 to 1923 ranged between five and ten
million bushels less than receipts, indicating; a larger processing in the
city than in the previous two decades when shipments more nearly balanced
receipts.

~Sapin, J. N. "The Women's Apparel Industry", St. Louis Commerce,
0July 20, 1938.
'""King of Bottled Boor; Anheuser-Busch Returns", Fortune, Vol. 12
July 1935.
5Appendix B.



The downward trend in corn receipt -ftnr 1890 was arrested in the
first decade of the century and from 1910 till the end of the war, rece pts
were stable averaging about twenty million bushels a year. Between 1918 and
1923, however, a very definite improvement
apparent which raised the
average for 1921-1923 to over thirty millions. With this increase, corn
shipments also grew so that shipments maintained their typical prewar relationship to receipts being very commonly eight to ten million bushels less
than receipts.
Both receipts and shipments of oats have continued to be important
in the city* s grain trade. From 1910 to 19?3 the annual receipts ranged between nineteen and thirty-six million bushels compared >tc the range of
seventeen million to forty-nine million for wheat and seventeen million to
thirty-three million for corn. Shipments of oats comprise a larger percentage
of receipts than is the case for wheat and corn being generally only six to
nine million bushels less than receipts.
Rye and barley receipts have always been relatively sma.ll compared
with the other three grains. Only three times since 1867 have rye receipts
reached one million bushels and the average for the five years 1919-1923 was
approximately a half million bushels with shipments averaging about 350,000
bushels. From i860 and until World War I barley receipts fluctuated around
two million bushels annually with relatively small amounts being shipped out.
From 1919 to 1923 the receipts dropped to about one million bushels with one
third being reshipped.
Since 1924 reporting of grain receipts and shipments was not continued by the St. Louis Merchants* Exchange and for shipments no statistics
are now available.-*- However, although the old statistical series reported by
the Merchants1 Exchange cannot be strictly compared w^ th Grain Receipts at
Primary Markets reported by the Department of Agriculture this latter reporting shows the receipts of wheat, corn and oats at St. Louis since 1923 *
From 1923 to 1931 the volume of wheat receipts at St. Louis ranged
between 53*231,000 bushels in 1928 and 29;697 000 in 1925. After 1931 and
continuing until 1937 the volume is much lower ranging between 17,989? 000
bushels and 14,825 000. After 1937 a general and marked improvement is shown
with the total reaching 45,273 000 bushels in 1942 and 79,009 000 in 1943.2
Corn receipts show much the same*fluctuation. Generally good receipts after
1923 reached a high of 38,108 000 bushels in 1928 and thereafter declined to
a low of 10,612.000 in 1934. Some recovery was made in succeeding years but
major improvement did not come until 1941. In 1942 and 1943 the figure rose
still further to reach a recent high of 31,834,000 in 1942. Oots showed the
same decline in receipts, starting from a high point in 1923 of 35^001,000
bushels and dropping sharply and continuously to reach 5.-717>000 in 1931Thereafter the annual figure remained ot about that level until 1943 when
10,439,000 bushels were received. Receipt? of all grains in this latter year
totalled 75 649,000 bushels which was second only to the all-time high of
81,000,00 bushels in 1928. Local conniption is approximating 25,000,000
bushels annually. A conservative estimate would place the value of the city's
grain receipts at $100,000,000.3

^Northwestern Miller, April 28, 1937 p. 58.
^U. Sf Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United
States, 1931, 1934. 1944-45.
3schwarz, 0. II.: "The St. Louis Grain Industry", St. Louis Commerce
June 21, 1944.



108
In 19^3 St. Louis was fourth among tho twelve primary markets in
receipts of wheat "being exceeded by only Minneapolis, Duluth and Kansas
City. For corn receipts the city was second to Chicago. And for oats was
in fourth place following Minneapolis, Chicago and DuluthA
Eeason for the low receipts in the thirties is to be found both in
losses of some handling of th..;so grains to other cities and in decline in the
total receipts at all primary markets. From 3.923 to 1931 when the city's
receipts of wheat were large St. Louis received approximately nine percent of
total receipts at all primary markets. In spite of some change in "the
character of the reporting after 1931 tha"~ confuse comparisons, the figures
indicate some decline in the city's comparative importance but also show
some of Its loss came from smaller total crops.^ In l$k2 and 19*+3 compared
to other primary markets the city is in as strong a position as any time in
the preceding twenty years. In respect to corn tho situation seeing much the
same and increase of St. Louis receipts in 19^2 and 19^3 restored to it the
relatively favorable position it had held between 1923 and 1927. After 1925
the total receipts of oats at all primary markets declined very sharply and
St. Louis not only suffered from this drop but also from handling smaller
percentages of the totals, approximately eight percent in 1933; four percent
in 19^1, and, as some considerable improvement, eight percent in 19^3•
These varied developments in the commercial activities of the city
supported tho city relatively well, during the bad years of the thirties and
brought it back to a relatively good position by 1939• Among the four cities
of the Middle West shown in the following table St. Louis did comparatively
well in terms of total wholesale trade in the low year of 1935 and in the
later year 1939•

City
St. Louis
Kansas City
Cincinnati
Chi cago
Source:

Wholesale Trade
(in millions of iollars)
<
1929 ,
1939
8 8 2 ^ 1,164
1395
1,382
650
762
691
64 7
477
4,080
5,697
3.270

IncLox
1929 1935
100
63
100
47
100
69
100
58

1939
B3
55
94
72

U. S. Census of Wholesale Trade, 19U0.

% o r receipts at 12 primary markets, 1933 to I9I4-3 see Appendix X.
'::U. S. Department of Comer ce, "Grain Receipts at Primary Markets",
Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1929, 193^ and I9M+-U5.




109
In 1935 the city suffered far
33 severe losses than Kansas City
and Chicago relative to 1929? and ]yj 19^9 ^ " hack to eighty-three percent
of the 1929 figure compared with fifty-five and seventy-two percent for
Kansas City and Chicago. Cincinnati managed even "better than St. Louis
dropping only about thirty percent from 1929 to 1935 "nd recovering by 1939
all but six percent of the 1929 total*
A re-arrangement and enlargement of those sane data on wholesale
trade shows the relative position of a number of cities in the nation's
trade and their changing importance from 1929 to 1939 •
^olesale Trade of Soloctod_CItj.es, 1929, 1935 and 1939

1935
1939
1929
Percent
Percent
Value Percent
Value
Value
in
of total
in
of total
in
of total
TT
O
millions
U. S.
U . O » Hi'.llions IT. S.
millions
of
wholesale
of
wholesale
wholesale
dollars
trade
dollars trade
dollars
traao
United States
St. Louis
Chi cago
Boston
Detroit
Los Angeles
Kansas City
Cine inns,ti

67.0
l.h
5.7
2.3
l.h
1.3
l.h
0.7

h?.8
0.9
3.3
1.3
1.0
c.9
0.6
0.5

100.C$
2.1
8.5
3 A
2.1
2.0
2.1
1.0

100.0$
pj
7 2
3.1
2.2
2.2
1.5
1.1

55.3
1.2
k .1
1.6
1.3
1.3
0.8
0.6

100.0$
2.1
3.b
2.h
2.3
l.h
1.2

1
1
Source:

IT. S. Census of Wholesale Trade, 1939.

While St. Louis was precisely retaining its same position in the
total wholesale trade of the country Detroit Los Angeles, and Cincinnati
wore improving their position and Chicago Boston and Kansas City were
suffering declines considerably more severe than occurred over the country
as a whole giving them a markedly smaller percentage of the total in 1939
than they had possessed in 1929.
The relatively poor showing of Kansas City develops in considerable part out of the very large dependence of the city on the grain trade.
As the following table shows over one third of Its trade was in farm raw
materials consisting of grains, feeds and seeds, hides, skins etc.




io6
Wholesale Trade, 19 39
(in millions of dollars)
St. Lou.is Kansas City
Clothings and furnishings
Groceries
Automotive
Metal and metal products
Machinery-equipment and. suppli*3 0
Drygoods
Farm products-raw materials0.
Farm products-consumer goods^
Electrical goods
Lumber and construction goods
Driigs and. drug sundries
Hardware
Paper and paper products
Tobacco
Chemicals and paints
Total - all products

S"

138 .0
126 T?
97 '.8
88 tp
76
75 .8
53 #P
hQ'.k
ift:?"
33 .9
30 . -i26 •
'
20 •"n
17
15 .0

6 .2
98 .8
93 • 5
15 .7
44 .1
4
276 ••71
27 .0
29 .1
25 • 5
13 .5
8 eO
6':s '
0• j
,8 .2

*?

£-

762 .1

1,16U .1

Cincinnati
7.1
98.1
57.1
61.2
39 .r
8.6
32.5
33-3
30.B 1
30.0
6.2
3'. 3
24.2
11.1
10.6
647.2

Chicago
88.8
619.4
162.1
^25.5
289.1
146.1
413.^
336.8
180.6 '
140.1
65.4
43.2
146.6
56.8
114.3
4,080.4

*

^Grains foods, soods, skins, cattle. horses and mules.
"^Dairy and poultry products, fresh fruits and vegetables.
The commodity groupings are listed in their order of importance to
St. Louis and the outstanding place held by clothings and furnishings and
groceries Is perfectly apparent. The lead which the city enjoys over the
other three centers In clothings and furnishings is striking and reflects
both the importance of St. Louis1 .manufacturers in these lines and the city's
very important place in their wholesale distribution. In view of population
differences in the two cities the ninety-seven million dollar sales of automotive equipment in St. Louis places it in very favorable position relative
to Chicago which is shown w:ith sales that are only two thirds larger.
Sales of metal and metal products and machinery in fourth and fifth places
for St. Louis reveal the healthy growth of a light metal industry in spite
of the failure of local resources needed, to build up the heavy steel industry,
in the city. Although the forty-four million dollar sales in electrical
goods fall far short of Chicago's sales they are well above Kansas City and
Cincinnati and indicate both a healthy manufacture and an active jobbing interest in St. Louis. In drugs and drug sundries the relatively large figure
for the city reflects the long continued growth of a manufacturing and trade
interest that was an important feature of tho city a hundred, years before.
With the exception of three or four groups this same feature is apparent for
the trade of the city - its present position is founded not on a few special
lines but on tho long continued growth of its old lines of trade. Innovations have been added, in important measure but these are still only additions. Old lines have in many details assumed new forms but fundamentally
the hundred years have seen no revolutionary change in the trading character
of tho city.




•jyv-7
The St. Louis Trade Area
In earlier sections it has boon seen that the St. Louis trade area
had been set during the era of the steamboat in the broad territory reached
by the Upper and Lower Mississippi , the Illinois, and Missouri Rivers. With
the decline of river traffic this market area was constricted to the north
as St. Louis no longer possessed natural advantages in the valley of the
Upper Mississippi, The city, however, continued to hold strong commercial
ties in Missouri and. southern Illinois and in the territory lying south of
these states.
The importance of this latter market in the southwest has not
diminished for St. Louis. Information on the destination of 184.294 package
or merchandise cars forwarded from St. Louis in 1941 prepared by the
Transportation Bureau of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce serves as a
rough indicator of the city1s marked area and shows the continuing Importance of this southwestern market. The (Tnarobor of Commerce designates a
region consisting of fourteen stotes as the city's Major Distributing .Area
which in 1941 received eighty-two percent of the package cars forwarded from
the city.1
Major
Distributing Area

No. of Package Cars Average No. Per Bay
(12 months - 19)11)
(300 Day Year)

Missouri
Illinois
Texas
^^Icansas
Kansas
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Louisiana
Indiana
Ohio
Iowa
Alabama
Kentucky
Mississippi

41,875
24.693
19,191
10 565
97983
9 391
6,853
5 ^37
4,659
4,386
3,921
.3 674

Total

151,444

x

^ rr cr <*>

3. 2?9

139 .58
82 .31
63 .97
.22
33 .28
31 .30
22 .86
18 .12
15 • 53
14 .62
13 .07
12 .25
ii . m
10 .86

22.7
13.4
10.4
5-7
5.4
5-1
3.7
3..-.Q ... .
2.5
2.4
2.1
2.0
1.9
1.8

504 .81

82.1

Industrial Bureau of St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.
on St. Louie (194*5), p. 9.




Pcrcent of
Total

Industrial Report

108
The states to the east and west of St. Louis along with Iowa are
obviously Important markets for St. Louis merchants. But the city continues
to hold the region of the lower Mississippi and Gulf in a place of marked
importance as it did in much earlier days. The area tied to St. Louis by
river traffic In steamboating days constitutes an Important market where St.
Louis commercial connections are still strong.
Spreading in all directions around the major market area of the
city are seven other states where St. Louis manufacturers and jobbers sell
important parts of their products. California stood at the forefront of
this secondary market area talcing in 19^1 a slightly larger number of merchandise cars from St. Louis than did Iowa, equal to two percent of the
total of 18^,29^.
Secondary
Market Area
California
Pennsylvania
Raw York
Georgia
Nebraska
Florida
Minnesota
Total

No. of Package Cars
(12 months - 1941)
3,776
3.262

2,'lW

2.610
2,308
204
2,000
18,948

Average No. per Day
(300 Day Year)

Percent of
Total

7.35
6.67

2.0
1.8
1.5
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1

63.16

10.3

12.59
10.87
9- 29
8.70

7.69

These seven states received ton percent of the merchandise shipments compared with eighty-two percent for the Major Distributing Area, of
the city but. In receiving between twelve and six cars per day from St.
Louis they appear as Important markets for the city. Although the states
comprising the group are located at considerable distances from St. Louis
they obviously make up an area where the city's distributors make sizable
sales. Seventeen other states were recorded as receiving between one and
five cars per day. At the head of this group are found Colorado, North
Carolina, Washington, Utah, and Wisconsin.
In general a more local but very important, distribution service is
performed by motor truck service. In addition to a number of independent
trucking companies and individual truckers there are 261 truck lines operating out of the city. Through service is performed to many relatively distant
points such as Detroit, Buffalo, Now York, Louisville, New Orleans, Dallas,
Fort Worth andJJpuston, Wichita, Omaha and even Pacific Coast points.
The
major market area served by these lines, however, is that lying within a 150
mile radius of the city..
Study of the commerce of St. Louis between l8?0 and 1910 revealed
that the river, on which the city had depended so much in earlier decades,
ceased to be of noticeable value aa a commercial artery. All the handicaps
of inadequate channels continued after 1870 to add to the inevitably difficult position In which waterway transportation had fallen. Improvements
undertaken almost wholly in the present century have altered the waterway
picture. Today channel depths of nine feet or more are found from the mouth
~ 1 Industrial Bureau, St*. Louis Chanbor of Commerce, Industrial Report
-on St. Louis (19^5); p. 51.



109
of the Mississippi to Minneapolis and Chicago with approximately six feet
from St, Louis to Kansas City and four to six feet from the latter city to
Sioux City.
From New Orleans the Intracoastal Caial offers a twelve foot
channel west to Corpus Christi and east to Apalachicola. Connections are
made at Mobile with the nine foot channel of the Tombighee-Black Warrior
System reaching Birmingham.
Improvement in waterway channels do not promise to be an unadulterated advantage to St. Louis. A relatively new type of 2000-ton
barge Is being operated capable of handling three times the cargo carried
in the older 500-ton barges. Even In years when the channel above St.
Louis has suffered from abnormally low water these barges have moved
through from the head of navigation on the Upper Mississippi to New Orleans
with no trans-shipment at St. Louis. Large development of this traffic
would injure a variety of port interests in the city and possibly various
rail carriers serving the c i t y . 2
The Federal Barge Lines and Mississippi Valley Barge Lines have
extensive operations on the river system. The former operates from
Minneapolis and St. Paul, Chicago and Kansas City to New Orleans, and the
Mississippi Barge Line offers regular scheduled services between St. Louis,
Cincinnati and New Orleans. In addition to these two major operators the
American Barge Line and the Union Barge Line offer less regular service to
St. Louis.3
•

~

1 t J.

S . Army, Chief of Engineers, Annual Report of 19*1-3, Part 2.
Hartsough, M. L., From Canoe to Steel Barge on the Upper Mississippi
(193*0> PP. 253^'-.
~~
'
3In its issue of Oct. 2b, 191*6 the St. Louis Globe Democrat noted the
operation of the first towboat In fifty years between St. Louis and Omaha.
2

"In a scene reminiscent of the heyday of the river traffic of
the 1880s a heavily loaded barge pushed by the towboat Franklin D
Roosevelt, docked at the port of Omaha Neb., yesterday after a trial
run up the Missouri Eiver from St. Louis.
The 280-foot steel barge was loaded with Brazilian coffee;
iron and steel from Chicago St. Louis and Kansas City; beer from
St. Louis and Peoria, bottles from St. Louis machinery from Cincinnati, and agricultural implements from Chicago.
A return trip to St. Lou:^-i will got underway Saturday. The
barge will stop at Nebraska City, Neb., en route, to pick-up 600
tons of grain and several carloads of canned goods




110
The river traffic at St. Louis has grown materially since 1934 the
first year in this recent period for which reliable statistics are available.
Biver Traffic at St. Louis, 1934-1945

Year
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
19^6
19^1
19^2
1943
1944
19J+5

Receipts
(tons)
394,1+41
410.730
421,800
417,02?
512,056
484,105
525,858
602,579
523.040
467,346'
710,720
599,117

Shipments
(total)
303-858
327.008
362 596
508,493
806,193
683,682
'776:756
77^,693
592,612
513,198
650,845
796,652

Total
(tons)
698.299
737.738
784,396
925,520
1,318,249
1,167,787
i','362.61 k
1,377,272
1,115,652
981,544
1,361,565
1,395,769

Source: Industrial Bureau, St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, Industrial Report
on St. Louis (1945).
Tonnage figures for the receipts and shipments at St. Louis in
the heyday of river traffic are not available but the above figures can be
compared with receipts and shipments for 1883 shown in Appendix Z. River
receipts in that year totalled 629*000 tons and shipments 677^000 for an
aggregate of 1,306,000 tons. This figure is very close to the larger
tonnage developed in the last decade and is materially larger than the
total receipts and shipments of 259*000 tons reported for 1913 "by the St.
Louis Merchants' Exchange.
River tonnage today is, of course, tremendouslyless important in tho total receipts and shipments by all forms of transport
than in 1883 but in limited measure at least the river continues its old
tendency to orient the city toward the south and southwest.

^-Seo Appendix Z for shipments and receipts 1883 to I923.




Foreign markets have offered an increasingly greater trade area
to St. Louis jobbers and manufacturers during the last three decades. In
1900 there were thirty-three exporting houses in the city and steady growth
over the next two decades more than trebled this figure. During the
twenties one hundred and fifty houses were handling annual sales of sixty
million dollars with Cuba and Mexico being the largest single buyers.1 An
important portion of the total went to South America.
Even before World War I Latin America trade journals carried advertisements for a tremendous variety of St. Louis products including wire
rope and cables, tin ware, bicycles, beer, leather products hardware,
paints and oils, furniture* candy, soap, woodworking machines, electrical
appliances and supplies, ladies* garments, chemicals, china and glassware,
caskets, surgical instruments and a variety of other articles too long to
mention.^
In the decade of the thirties the interest of St. Louis in
foreign markets is not diminishing and over throe hundred firms are actively
engaged in the business. Exports finding their way to almost one hundred
foreign countries were estimated as aggregating at least fifty million
dollars.3

^•Murray, Chris L., "St. Louis Expands Eer Export Range All Over the
World", St. Louis Globe Democrat, February 27, 1927.
St, Louis Chamber of Commerce News, April 30, 1929.
2''The Foreign Trade of St. Louis", a report of the Foreign Trade
Committee of the Business Men's League of St. Louis (1912), pp. 5-6.
^Gephart, W. P., "St. Louis and Foreign Trade", St. Louis Commerce,
May 25, 1938.




112
Manufacturing, 1910-1945.
The Industrial District of St. Louis has developed in eight
rather well-defined industrial areas. Seven of the eight are found on the
west side of the river In the following sections:1
North Broadway Industrial Section - lumber* woodworking,
Maliinckrodt Chemical Works, Mississippi Glass Co. - grain elevators - meat
packing - holler works - machine shops.
South Broadway Industrial Section - smelters, chemical plants,
foundries - American Car & Foundry - Monsanto Chemical Works - holler works
- Anheuser-Busch "brewery.
Mill Creek - railroads occupy floor of valley - MP, StLSF and
Terminal - two largest St. Louis meat packing plants - glue works foundries.
Eiver des Peres - MP and Frisco serve valley - "brick, tile, terra
cotta clays - ScuJLlin Steel - More-Jones Brass Foundry - National Lead Co.
Oak Hill - clay products mainly - served by branch line of MP light manufactures.
Northwest - In Harlen Creek drainage basin - two large brick
plants - Terminal Railroad along the valley - Chevrolet and Fisher Body
Works - Pullman Car Shops - United Drug - Bridge and Beach Stove Co.
Carondelot - delta of River des Peres and Mississippi - steel
smelters, foundries, railroad yards and shops - one large grain elevator.
Downtown St. Louis Section - manufacture of shoes, hats,clothing
chemicals, drugs, etc. - commercial and financial district,
On the east side of the river are steel foundries, smelters, refineries, the Aluminum Corporation of America, chemical plants, flour and
feed mills and many miscellaneous processing plants. National City has four
hundred acres covered with stockyards and meat packing plants. Madison and
Granite City concentrate on iron and steel foundries and stamping mills.
Between Madison and National City are the croosoting yards of the Kettle
River Company and the Barver Asphalt Company with a large cotton-seed cake
mill nearby.
In the period from 1870 to 1910 the oast side industrial area was
of growing importance in the total manufacturing of the St. Louis District.
Data are not available In the 1910 Census to show the situation in 1909 but
comparisons of recent years with 1900 shows the city proper declined in relative importance until after 1919 when it apparently worked toward at least
a temporarily stable place in the industrial activity of the whole district.

-*-cf. Holsen, James N., Economic Survey of St. Louis (1927)0




113
Value of Manufacture - St. Louis Industrial District
(millions of dollars]

Year

1900
1909
1919
1929
1939

St. Louis
St. Loui s
City
County
Percent
Percent
Amount
Amount
of
of
total
total
i.b
233.6
79-0
0,5
a
a
a
328.5
64.1
2.0
26.7
871.7
66.3
1,022.7
2.9
66.0
k.2
^5.8
716.7
a

St. Clair
Madison
County, 111.
County, 111.
Percent
Percent
Amount
Amount
of
of
total
total
18.6
52.0
Ik.2
6.3
a
a
a
13.2
179.0
281.5
20.7
258.8
215.0
16.9
13.9
169.8
15.6
Ik.2

Totr 1
Amount
295.6
a
1,358.8
1,5^2.0
1,086.6
-

Not available.
Source: U. S. Census of Manufactures.

St. Louis County held to a relatively stable volume of products
in 1929 and 1939 and its greater percentage importance in 1939 comes from
this stability, A great deal of the growth of the whole area in the first
two decades of the century developed in St. Clair County containing East St.
Louis and Belleville, and in Madison County containing Madison, Granite
City, Wood Eiver and Alton. The two counties, however, did not hold the
gains made up to 1919 and show a considerable drop from a combined importance of 33.9 percent of the total in 1929 to 29.8 percent in 1939. It is
particularly notable that much of the loss in St. Clair County came between
1919 and 1929 when all the other component parts of the area were showing
quite healthy increases.
At times St. Louisans have shown some alarm at the growth of the
Illinois towns found in St. Clair and Madison Counties, However, it has
come to be rather generally recognized that the products manufactured in
these towns would normally be excluded at least in part from a. large citv
of fixed limits by economic forces and by modern ideas of city planning.
From 1900 to 1939 the value of manufactures of the St. Louis
Industrial District shewed a growth from $296,000,000 to $1,087,000,000.
At the opening of the century the St. Louis figure represented 2.27 percent
of total U. S. value of manufactures and In I939 had fallen to 1.91. This
loss occurred between 1929 and 1939 as the previous decennial censuses show
the city with almost precisely the same percentage Importance from 1900 to
1929. This same phenomenon, however is apparent in most of the leading
cities of the country:

Icf. Goodrich, E. P., St, Louis Industrial Survey (1918), pp. 612-13.




114
Value of Manufactures in Selected Cities, 1929 and. 1939

1929
Value of
Percent
manufacture
of
(in millions) total
United. States
$ 67,994
1,542
St. Louis
2.3
8.2
Chicago
5,558
Nev York, Newark,
9,424
Nev Jersey13.9
4.4
Philadelphia- Camden
2,981
1.4
Cincinnati
933
Cleveland
2.2
1;505
Pittsburgh
3-0
2,015
2,014
Detroit
3.0
Boston
1,950
2.9
741
1.1
Kansas City
Los Angeles
1,319
1.9
Source: U. S. Census of Manufactures,

1939
Value of
manufacture
(in millions)

Percent
of
total

$ 56,843
1,087
4,278

1.9
7.5

6.948
2,293
703
1,123
1,501
1,583
1,425
484
1,219

12.2
4.0
1.2
2.0
2.6
2.8
2.5
0.8
2.1

Relative to 1929 all the 1939 figures in the above table show
losses but even more they show that for St. Louis and for nine of the ten
other cities the losses were proportionately greater than for the United
States as a whole. Los Angeles shows a smaller value of production in 1939
than in 1929 but its share in the total national production rose from 1.9 to
2.1 percent. It Is possible that the relative 1939 situation of these large
cities reflects some influences from the dispersion of industry which has
been recognized as a developing phenomenon in American industrial organization but the data are obviously too limited to support any conclusions of
that nature. In large part they probably reflect pecularities of the year
1939 that had more depressive effects for the manufacture of the large
centers than for the country as a whole.•
Data for St. Louis for the whole deca.de of the thirties show that
In general the poorer position of St. Louis in 1939 relative to 1929 represents a relatively slow recovery from tho low points of 1933*




I4anufacturing and Manufacturing Wage Earners In
~~
fr^TTo^^
102^ 1939
Wag1*0
Earners
Year
Number
1929
154=321
118,334
1931
102;354
1933
ll6.633
1935
140,876
1937
126,831
1939
Source: U. S.

Value of
Manufacture s
Percent
Value
Percent
of
in
of
U. S. Total millions U. S. Total
1.84
2.26
1,542.0
894.6
1.92
2.25
664.6
2.18
1.77
1.62
887.7
1.97
1.64
1.98
1,202.7
1.6l
1,086.6
1.91
Census of Manufactures•

115
The relatively slow recovery of these over-all figures for St.
Louis by 1$35 and the weakening in 1939 after a slight show of improvement
in 1937 is apparent in the experience of several of the Individual, major
manufacturing lines. In 1939 these leaders and their percentage of total
value of manufacture for the Industrial District and the fluctuations shown
from 1929 to 1939 are depicted in the following table.
Fluctuation in National Importance of Leading St. Louis
Industries, 1929-1939

Industry-

Value of Product in St. Louis
Wage Earners as
Industrial District as Percent
Percent of Total
of Total Value of Product
Wage Earners in
For U. S.
St. Louis Industrial
District, 1939
1929 1931 1935 1937 1939

Footwear (except rubber)
Electric machinery,
apparatus and supplies
Steel works and rolling
mills
Moat packing (wholesale)
Malt Liquors
Boot and shoe cut stock
and findings

3.2$

GM

b.&fo 3.of

5.6

2.1

5.1
b.9
2.9

1.0
1.1
1.7
1.3
1.9
5.8
5-2
5.7
5.5
5.3 ...
a
s:k "' 5"."1* ""6.6 '7.8

2.7

21.9

2.8

b

..2-8

b

3-3$ 3-3$
2,6

19.6

. 2.7

17.8

^Prohibition,
available.
Source: U* S, Department of Labor, Impact of the War on the St. Louis
Area, Appendix Table E.
Electric machinery, apparatus and supplies produced in the St.
Louis Industrial District gained importance relative to tho country as a
whole increasing from 2.1 percent In 3-929 to 2.7 percent in 1939* In meat
packing the area virtually hold its own showing mild gains or losses relative to the United States' totals In the different years. Also for malt
liquors the situation of the local industry is satisfactory or more than
satisfactory. Its lessened percentage importance in 1935 resulted largely
from restoration of browing in other areas but its increased importance in
1937 and 1939 speaks woll for the strength of the local industry. The
losses among these leaders are found in Footwear, Boot and Shoe Cut Stock
and Findings, and Steel Works and Boiling Mills.
Immediately prior to World War II the footwear industry was employing over 10,000 persons and producing shoes valued at over forty-six million
dollars. But the industry has not fulfilled all that it had promised a decade earlier. In 1930 the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce News pridefully
noted:1
"This city produced 87,000.000 pairs of shoes in 1929 to
beat the 78,000,000 figure of 1928, But not only did St. Louis
register an increase in Its production figures for 1929 over
1928, but the rate of production by local manufacturers increased at a greater rate than the total Unitod States output".
1

St. Louis Chamber of Commerce News, Feb. 18, 1930.




116
.However, discussing the same matter almost ten years later, Business Week noted that for years St. Louis had "been fighting a losing battle
to retain her important shoe factories. One after another they had moved to
small communities in Illinois and Missouri because of the customary inducements: "tax-free land, free building sites, part or all of building costs,
and, of course, cheaper labor with open-shop prevailing". Among the major
losses to the city were the construction of new plants by the Brown Shoe Co.,
International Shoe and McEIroy-Sloan in outlying towns such as Charleston;
Mount Vernon, and Vandalia in Illinois.
The important attraction found in small towns is the generally more
favorable labor relations found in them. Probably the wage differentials
favoring small-town manufacture will be appreciably lessened in the near
future but other labor advantages will persist at least for some time, One
feature in St. Louis' shoe manufacture which should strengthen its position
has been the broadening of the variety of shoes produced. In former years,
St. Louis had specialized in the making of coarse shoes, but after 191^ a
number of its firms entered, the field of novelty and specialty shoes. In
1915.' Johansen Bros, took first prize in the specialty line at the San
Francisco Panama Pacific Exposition. From this time on, St. Louis increasingly manufactured more lines of shoes- and if the disadvantage of the city
relative to labor conditions in small towns can be overcome the future of the
industry seems to be a very promising one. Estimates of expected postwar
employment prepared by producers in the leather and leather products field,
of which over half the products is boots and shoes, are encouraging. They
forecast an increase of over twenty-five percent in the postwar employment in
the industry relative to employment in 19^0.2
It is apparent that quite diverse reasons explain the decline in
relative importance of St. Louis in these major lines of manufacture. Equally
varied and frequently unique explanations for declines in each of various
other fields of industry would be revealed by examination of the individual
fields. Not simple generalized causes but individual factors peculiar to a
particular field will largely explain the rises and falls which occur from
time to time. For;examplo, as was seen in the period I87O-I9IO flour production in St. Louis was injured by change in demand for different types of
flour and the rise of milling in the grain areas. Even these developments
offer only a very generalized explanation of the change from 1929 to 1939•
Full explanation can only be found in isolating all the varied consumption,
production, and transportation features that led to increases in flour milling in 1939 relative to 1929 in Wichita and Salina while Kansas City declined;
increases in Portland, Oregon, while Tacoma lost ground and Seattle barely
held its own; and small increases in Biiffalo while Minneapolis output was cut
in half.3

IVogt, Herbert J., The Boot and Shoe Industry of St. Louis (1929), p. bo.
•-St. Louis District Committee For Economic Development; The Outlook For
Postwar Employment (I9W1-), p. 20.
3The Northwestern Miller, April 30, 19^6, p. 26.




117
I t is apparent that Industrially St. Louis as veil as the whole
country was exposed to many adverse influences In the decade of the thirties.
However for the whole period 1900 to ±9k0 industrial growth for the United
States has "been phenomenal and St, Louis has played its part, contributing a
value of manufacture of $295,600,00 in 1900 and $1;086,600,000 in 1939.
Over the span of these years changes ma.de in the industrial classifications
used in the Census of Manufactures prevents the tracing of this growth from
Census data. Commercial and industrial records of the city, however, supply
a wealth of detail covering the diverse influences which have aided or retarded the growth of the individual Industries that make up the over-all
manufacturing strength of the industrial area.
In 1920, St. Louis had hopes of becoming an important automobile
manufacturing center but various influences were to place that industry on
the Great Lakes.1 The cityfs automobile manufacturing was destined to become an assembly industry. Illustrating in a new field the old advantages
possessed by the city as a distributing center. Along with the assembly Industry there grew up a varied and extensive manufacture of automobile parts
as a number of manufacturers turned out piston rings, valves, spark plugs,
electric starters and various electric e q u i p m e n t
Before World War I,
piston rings alone supported nine factories, including two of the largest
such plants In the country and demands of the army and navy during 1917 and
1918 added materially to the business of these c o m p a n i e s , 3
Most of the manufacturing lines of the city benefited during the
war years 1915 to 1918 but more frequently expansion was supported by
generally large consumer buying at high prices rather than from direct war
purchases. Even In production of cr,st iron and foundry projects where war
orders were large the major lift to the industry came from orders, such as
the large orders for car wheels, that wore indirect results of the war.
While most industrial activity benefited from the war, flour milling and brewing were injured. Price regulations and control over grain
movements hurt flour milling and severely rising costs and heavy taxes militated against expansion of brewing. Rising costs however, was a mild complaint compared to Prohibition which virtually closed the industry for
fifteen years. Tho repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment meant much to St.
Louis. It not only restored a very Important industry to the city but
brought material secondary benefits. Tho rehabilitation of ten breweries was
reported as resulting in the expansion of ten existing industries and the employment of over two thousand additional persons. Among the indirect benefits of the end of the long drouth wore expansions of bottle manufactures,
pretzel production and beer case and box manufacture.
A number of old lines of manufacture almost take on the appearance
of new industries in the years after 1910 owing to the definite development
they enjoyed. The printing Ink Industry, for example, came to the city in
I885 but relatively recent growth has pushed the city as a newcomer among the
few leading centers manufacturing the p r o d u c t . 5
ltf

Third Largest Automobile Center in U.S.A.", Greater St. Louis, Feb.
1929, p. k.
2
Thomas, L. F., The Localization of Business Activities in Metropolitan
St. Louis, (1927), pp. 75-67
'
~
—
~ ~
3St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 19,18, p, 51.
^St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1917.
5Hill, Adolph B., "Stf Louis Ideal For Ink Manufacturing", St. Louis
Commerce, Nov. 23, 1918.



118
In 1938 St. Louis production was reported as two million dollars out of a
national production of thirty-five million. The advantage which the city has
enjoyed is its central location and increased needs of the south as industrial and economic growth has come to the south and southwest.
Another old industry, dating hack to the days of steamboating, was
revitalized in 1933 when Herman Pott purchased the old Carondelet ways and
established the St. Louis Shipbuilding and Steel Company. Since that dato
the company has turned out 810 hulls not including a number constructed for
the Navy between 1942 and 1944 by it or its subsidiary, the Missouri Shipbuilding Corporation. In addition, during World War II St. Louis produced
various parts for many invasion craft in some seventy-two plants in the industrial area.***
Before the war St. Louis continued to hold the leading position in
the country as a? manufacturer of sugar mill machinery. As was seen earlier
this equipment was going to Hawaii, Porto Rico and Cuba before 1900 and the
important start made then has been well maintained so that now St. Louis
sugar mill machinery Is sold in over twenty foreign countries.^
During this period the elcctric supply industry of tho city also
gained increased^stature, reaching a production of nearly fifty million
dollars .in 1939Four-fifths of this production was in "generating, distributing, and industrial apparatus not otherwise classified".
Five
nationally known companies had their headquarters in St. Louis. Those were
tho Century Electric Emerson Electric, Khapp-Monarch, Moloney Electric and
Wagner Electric companies.
Moloney Electric Company is nationally known for its industrial
transformers; the Wagner Electric Company for its industrial transformers and
also for its household -appliances in the popular price range and Century
Electric Company has specialized in producing small motors.
Emerson Electric underwent notable expansion after 1938, At that
time William S. Symington became president of the Company. "Within two years
he converted Emerson from a thing fit for the flies into a robust small business. He expanded its electrical line, took it into war work, making bomber
turrets. Most important of all his improvements were in labor relations.
Largely because of them Emerson today has only a nominal relationship with
tho company that used to be."-'

^Sttt Louis Commerce? Oct. 18, 1944.
Sst. Louis Commerce, Oct. 16, 1940.
3lJnited States Department of L^bor, Impact of the War on the St. Louis
Area (1944), p. 37.
United States Department of Labor, Impact of the War on the St. Louis
Area (1944), p. 6.
5"Yaloman and a Communist; Worked things out together for the good of
Emerson Electric -- and the war", Fortune, Vol. 28, Nov. 1943, p. 146.




119
St. Louis' neat packing industry continues as one of the five most
important in the country. "Chicago is first, and St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas
City, Omaha are approximately tied for second honors. On the ha sis of the
number of head received, St. Louis led in calves, was second in hogs, fourth
in cattle and ninth in sheep."
Production fell from $183,130,000 in 19292 to $86,000,000 in 1933-3
The drop was largely the result of price declines and the St. Louis industry
gained in proportion to the total United States production for the Industry.
In 1933 it packed five and eight-tenths percent of the United States meet products, as compared with five and five-tenths percent in 1929. And meat pack-_
ing became more important to St. Louis itself, during the early depression
years when St. Louis moat packers employed half again as many manufacturing
workers as they did in 1929* Throughout the 1930?s the packers never fell below their 1929 position, relative to the rest of the industry.4
Asbestos production and Insulation contract companies are other
lines tributary to the building construction industry of the city, which developed by 1939 to the point of employing over c thousand men with payrolls
exceeding a million dollars annually.^'
In the manufacture of women's hats St. Louis con boast of more than
mere growth. For on industry frequently troubled with marked instability the
development of the last two decades has created as stable a group in St. Louis
as can be found in the United States. Growth has come also. The four million
dollar business of 1939 was nearly five percent of the national total."
Many other examples of the healthy, but usually unspectacular growth
which has characterized much of St. Louis industry can be found in such
diverse lines as manufacture of photographic supplies, production of railway
ties printing and engraving, the milling of feeds, patent medicines, soaps,
cosmetics, bottles and plate glass, and even the processing of horseradish.7
In this latter field St. Louis supplies the needs of most of the nation. And
older lines such as barrel manufacture, rope making, stove manufacture have
grown and changed with the times.
A detailed record of the varied and growing industries of St. Louis
are found in monthly statements on new industries and expansions of old industries published in the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce News. The following
summary prepared from these data shown an added industrial investment of
eighty-three millions in 1929, very much smaller additions in 1931 and 1932
and then an annual average from. 1933 to 1939 of over thirteen millions. The
average annual additions of employes during these latter seven years was
forty-six hundred.
^Rainey^ E. T.. "Our Number 1 Industry -- Moat Packing", St. Louis
Commerce, June 22, 1938, p. 3.
^Fourteenth United States Census ( 1 9 3 0 )
^Uni ted States Department of Labor: Impact of the War on the St. Louis
Area, (1933), p. 37. ~
~
mainey, E. T., "Our Number 1 Industry -- Meat Packing", St. Louis
Commerce, Juno 22, 1938.
^Kindorf, George, "The Asbestos Industry in St. Louis", St. Louis
Cornerce, Dec. 13, 1939""Your Lady's Hat", St. Louis Commerce. Nov. 13, 19^0.
7For detailed notes on a groat variety of St. Louis industries see
issues of St. Louis Commerce over the past tern years and Annual Reports of
the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange until 1924.



120
Industrial Development of St. Louis Industrial Area
—j
Year
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932""1
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
mi..
19^0
1941
1942
1943
19©
1945

Number
of new
cacroanies
63
80
57
71
115
115
102
85
90
76
99
91
88
77

30
29
66
560

Number
of
expansions
30
135
a.
!

^

103
109
120
114
141
161
125
194
236
187
131
98
165
1600

Total
new companies
and
expansions
143
215
a
146
218'
224
222
199
231
237
224
285
324
264
161
127
225
2l6e

Added
Industrial
number
investment
of
eiiroloyes
$ 21,899,000
5-388
83,261 000
6,281
a
3,873
4,951 000
2,767
47639,550
273267 "
15,911.187
8-935^
8,052
7,122,950
10,924,400
M 7 3 ..
3,324
'16.897,300
3,746
12,800,175
8,532,675
2,675
21,114,762
3,6.58
l4,ll8
58 "775,053
5,232
124,741,860
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d

a

Not compiled.
^Estimated on "basis of 9 months.
c
Estimated on basis of 11 months.
&Not reported account military censorship.
e
Estimated on basis of 10 months.
Although the added investment was more than four times greater in
19^0 than the annual average of the immediately preceding years it still did
not reach or surpass the 1929 figure until 19^-1. In that year nearly
$125,000,000 of Investment was added to increase employment by over 5^000?
It is notable that since 19^1 < years for which the added investment is not
reported, the growth has largely been in expansions of old plants and in
lesser measure from the appearance of new companies.
The individual industries affected by the appearance of new
companies or by expansion of old companies are too numerous to list but the
following descriptions for January of 193^ 1939> and 19hk are illustrative
of the broad, varied growth of the city.




121
January, 193
"Eighteen new industries located in the St. Louis industrial
district during January, and there were eight expansions of existing
enterprises. Eight of the industries and companies represent new
wine and liquor interests.
The new industries and expansions require the service of 840
additional employes, represent an added industrial investment of
$523,900.
New Industries: manufacturer of cloth and engineers' caps,
manufacturer of junior frocks, manufacturer of women's undergarments - manufacturer of novelty mirrors, distributor of barb wire,
manufacturer of children's shoes, manufacturer of dresses distributor of wine and liquors, two distilleries, brewery supply firm.
Expansions: window displays, manufacturer of shoes, truck
terminal, manufacturer of champagne, manufacturer of envelopes,
liquor distributor, manufacturer of children's shoes, manufacturer
of furniture."
January, 19392
"During the month of January ten new industries and twelve
expansions of established enterprises were reported in the St. Louis
industrial district. These new industries and expansions, requiring
the services of l6l additional employes, represent an added industrial investment of $1,076.500...
New industries: manufacturer of vending machines, manufacturer
of beauty shop furniture, forwarding company, manufacturer of paints,
distributor of a drink, distributor of stationery, distributor of
ladies' hosiery, bakery distributor of shoes, manufacturer of shoes.
Expansions: manufacturer of steel products distributor of metal
goods, auto body repair Post Office, manufacturer of lighting equipment, manufacturer of lamps, Carter Carburetor distributor of autos,
motor transportation. Board of Education, supply yard of a construction company, railway company."
January, 1944.3
"Six new industries and 14 expansions.
New industries: manufacturer of dresses, finishing of
magnesium castings, manufacturer of boys' wear, petroleum company,
manufacturer of sportswear, resident buying office.
Expansions: plating company, salvage company, advertising
agency, manufacturer of aircraft parts, Missouri Permi-Tac, dealers
in women's wear, Goodyear, distributor of bicycle equipment, manufacturer of cosmetics, manufacturer of stokers, distributor of
hosiery, manufacturer of envelopes, laundry, Ice and cold storage."
^St. Louis Chamber of Commerce News Feb. 27, 1934, pp. 7-8.
% t . Louis Commerce, Feb. 22, 1939, p. 10,
3st. Louis Commerce, Feb. 23, 1944, p. 11.



122
An over-all survey of tho industry groups comprising St. Louis
manufactures in 1939 shows Food and Kindred Products, Chemical and Allied
Products, and Iron and St el with a commanding lead among the following
nineteen industry groups found in the 1939 Census of Manufactures.
Value of Manufactures, 1939
(In millions of dollars)
1939

5-roup
no.
1 Food and. kindred products
Q Chemicals and allied products
lb Iron and steel (except machinery)
b Apparel and other finished products
12 Leather and leather products
15 Nonferrous metals and their products
lb Electrical machinery
8 Printing, publishing and allied lines
i7 : Machinery except electrical
13 Stone, clay, and glass products
7 Paper and allied products
6 Furniture and finished lumber products
2 ' Tobacco Manufactures
20 Miscellaneous industries
19 Transportation equipment except autos
3 Textile-mill products and others
11 Rubber products
5 Lumber and timber basic products
10 Products of petroleum and coke
18 Automobiles and automobile equipment
Unclassified
Groups 5, 10 and 18 combined
"
2, 6, 11 16 and 19 combined
" 11, 18, 19, 2 3, 10 combined
"
2. 11 and 19 combined
a

Total
See unclassified

St.
Louis
indutrial
area
286.9
111.2
99-5
58.7
57.5'
50.4
1*6.7
43-4
35.5
30.1
27.9
23.0
" 18.5
13.8
13.5
9.0
4.6'
b.l
3.9
a

Chi- Kansas
City
cago
indu- indutrial trial
area
area
931.2 202.0
279.3
39.3
33.4
917.3
28.2
176.9
66.5
1.6
4.1
148.7
161.0
3-2
311.6
23.I
6.4
277-2
4.4
56.2
94.6
8.9
8.1
9b.3
6.6
a
1.9
127.9
42.4
0.6
a
41.5
a
a
2.0
10.5
32.6
305.8
a
77.8

Cincinnati
indutrial
area
123.2
77.3
88.7
31.3
35-3
14.8
43 .6
' 68.7
9 .4
62.'?
9.9
a
17.0
a
7.0
a
11.2
28.7
42.4

IU9.2
.... 168.2
84.5
15.6
1,087.3 4,283.7

483.8 703.5

In the case of each of the cities, Food and Kindred Products stands
first among the general groups. Only In tho case of Cincinnati, does Chemical and Allied Products rank high in the list as It does for St. Louis.
Among the groups for which St. Louis production compares favorably with the
other three cities are Tobacco Manufactures; Apparel; Leather and Leather
Products; Stone, Clay.and Glass Products; Nonforrous Metals; Electrical
Machinery; and Furniture and Finished Lumber Products. St. Louis exceeds
Kansas City and Cincinnati in every line except Lumber, Paper and Paper
Products, Products of Petroleum and Coke, and Machinery (other than electrical). In the case of printing and publishing, St. Louis and Cincinnati are
virtually equals. In terms of total manufacture, the St. Louis industrial
district is one quarter the size of the comparable Chicago area but it




123
maintains something "better than this relationship in the production of Food
and Food Products; Apparel; Lumber; Chemicals and Allied Products; Leather
and Leather Products; Stone, Clay? and Glass Products; and Nonferrous
Metals. St, Louis falls definitely- short of maintaining a one to four
ratio with Chicago in Pointing and Publishing, Petroleum and Coke Products,
Iron and Steel Products, and Machinery (other than electrical).
The St. Louis Metropolitan Committee for Economic Development
reported among other things on the postwar employment plans of manufacturing companies in the Industrial area. Compilation of the reports from individual companies revealed a very generally optimistic outlook on the
part of St. Louis industrial groups. Totals show the expected postwar
employment in manufacturing to be fifty-three percent greater than on April
1, 19^0. Admittedly such forecasts are very uncertain things and carry
within them very important implied assumptions regarding general business
conditions. Obviously the forecasts rest on a generally prosperous "postwar" period. While forecasts of the amount of growth for all industry or
for different manufacturing groups could be seriously upset by the presence
of unfavorable phases of the business cycle, the relative growth which is
forecast for different industry groups can be used to show where St, Louis
industrialists expect the greatest postwar gains. Out of eighteen industry
groups (as used In Census of Manufactures) there are seven in which the
growth forecasted is greater than average. Starting with the group for
which greatest growth was forecast and presenting them in relative order
these ar<3: Transportation Equipment (other than automobiles); Chemicals and
Allied products; Electrical Machinery; Machinery other than electrical;
Stone and Clay and Glass products; Textiles and Textile Products and
Apparel; and Food and Kindred Products. Growth below the average for all
industry was indicated for Tobacco Manufacturer, Leather and Leather Products, and Non-ferrous Metals and their products. No growth was forecast
for Printing and Publishing Rubber Products and Miscellaneous Industries.
As has been suggested the precise measure of growth that may be
expected in the St. Louis Industrial Area In any immediate period is
dependent on factors which are still being appraised by disagreeing experts. However, the results of the survey conducted by the C.E.D* committee
show an obvious optimism among the business of the industrial area and a
"deep faith in the future of St. Louis".-"

1st. Louis District Committee For Economic Development, The Outlook
For Postwar Employment.







12

APPE5JDICES

Appendix AA

Value of Manufactures, St. Louis, 1870 and 1875

Commodity
Bags and Bagging
Beer and Ale
Boiler Makers
Boots and shoes
Bread and crackers
Brick
Brushes and brooms
Candy and confectionery
Cigars
Cooperage

1870
$

433,600
3,557,553
405,207
1,475,717
1,925,585

1875
$

2,254,750
4,003,315
387,000
1,704,780
1,503,220

666,630
476,082
1,270,336
1,151,250
1,651,629

1,538,210
183,200
1,322,500
2,019,280
1,478,080

587,950
300,000
11,686,440
168,030

660,000
850,000
13,632,500
110,500

4,840,240

6,132,310

399,500
165,000
476,200
260,966
474,200

861,000
1,426,600
782,000
381,500
352,000

Mill machinery
Nuts and bolts
Planing mills, sash & door factories
Pork Products
Quarries

225,000
260,000
3,657,290
7,929,700
371,500

514,000
370,000
2,771,170
11,000,000
1,500,000

Rectifiers
Soaps and candles
Soda & Mineral Waters
Stores
Sugar

1,563,392
2,869,100
82,320
2,479,000
3,678,250

2,330,000
3,127,800
290,500
2,889,600
5,900,000

Tanneries
Tobacco
Type
Vinegar and cider
Wagons and carriages

210,030
3,094,083
104,000
109,660
960,206

426,500
3,662,475
142,760
424,000
1,420,540

1,6335500
801,214
94,230
314,000
24,000
} 62,832,570

2,925,000
1,250,000
425,000
2,266,100
250,000
$ 85,468,190

Cotton Goods
Drugs and chemicals
Flour and meal
Foundries, brass
Furnaces,rolling mills, foundries and
machine shops
Glass
Lard refineries
Malt
Marble and monumental works
Matches

White lead and oil
Wine
Wire and wire goods
Wooden ware
Zinc
Total

Source: Union Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1875 (1876),
p. 16*







Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15
Receipts and Shipments of Grain - St. Louis, Mo., 1867-1923

Wheat
(Bu.)

Year

Corn
(Bu.)

•Receipts

Shipments

1867
1868
1869
1870
1871

3,571,593
4,353,591
6,736,454
6,638,253
7,311,910

321,888
542,231
1,715,005
636,562
1,048,532

1872
1873
1874
1875
1876

6,007,987
6,185,038
8,255,221
7,604,265
8,037,574

1877
1878
1879
1880
1881

keceipts

Oats
(Bu.)

Rye
(Bu.)

Barley
(Bu.)

Year

Shipments

Receipts

Shipments

5,155,480
2,800,277
2,395,713
4,708,838
6,030,734

4,318,937
1,611,618
1,298,863
3,637,060
4,469,849

3,445,388
3,259,132
3,461,814
4,519,510
4,358,099

2,244,756
1,925,579
2,903,002
3,144,744
2,484,582

250,704
367,961
266,056
210,542
374,336

56,076
192,553
110,947
100,254
138,756

705,215
634,591
757,600
778,518
876,217

55,720
64,426
57,134
70,451
62,843

1867
1868
1869
1870
1871

918,477
1,210,286
.1,938,841
1,562,453
2,630,007

9,479,387
7,701,187
6,991,677
6,710,263
15,249,909

8,079,739
5,260,916
4,148,556
3,523,974
12,728,849

5,467,800
5,359,853
5,296,957
5,006,850
3,660,912

3,467,594
3,215,206
3,027,663
2,877,035
1,932,983

377,587
356,580
288,743
275,200
399,826

150,208
206,652
166,133
134,960
304,192

1,263,486
1,158,615
1,421,406
1,171,337
1,492,985

87,566
125,604
227,418
146,330
223,680

1872
1873
1874
1875
1876

8,274,151
14,325,431
17,093,362
21,022,275
13,243,571

2,410,190
6,900,802
7,302,076
11,313,879
6,921,630

11,847,771
9,009/723
13,360,636
22,298,077
21,259,310

9,309,014
6,382,712
8,311,005
17,571,322
15,390,180

3,124,721
3,882,276
5,002,165
5,607,078
6,295,050

1,550,665
1,792,801
2,154,026
2,541,613
3,222,858

-x/2,907
845,932
713,728
468,755
469,769

397,183
757,621
423,720
276,041
304,761

1,326,490
1,517,292
1,831,507
2,561,992
2,411,723

188,251
244,799
260,422
155,113
187,064

1877
1878
1879
1880
1881

1882
1883
1884
1885
1886

20,774,987
15,000,704
16,368,809
10,690,677
12,309,364

12,446,060
6,430,765
7,177,982
2,332,609
2,429,462

14,541,555
20,001,450
19,607,325
26,114,782
16,387,071

9,376,975
15,199,849.
16,533,259
20,491,416
11,848,995

8,138,516
6,452,757
7,036,951
7,383,529
7,426,915

4,410,011
3,047,559
3,082,360
3,680,829
2,764,922

403,707
532,270
585,218
726,798
447,842

344,870
393,557
700,526
636,640
337,018

1,818,968
2,860,798
2,625,841
3,017,362
2,529,731

86,245
180,900
169,781
210,340
215,377

1882
1883
1884
1885
1886

1887
1888
1889
1890
1891

14,510,315
13,010,108
13,810,591
11,730,774
25,523,183

6,238,268
4,412,506
5,351,141
3,688,015
14,977,215

16,576,386
20,269,499
34,299,781
45,003,681
21,530,940

13,841,172
15,904,759
30,049,187
40,616,333
14,881,603

9,768,545
10,456,760
11,347,340
12,229,955
12,432,215

3,780,729
5,414,764
6,803,877
7,191,868
7,772,858

236,726
421,514
679,364
501,054
1,149,490

175,352
275,233
809,072
467,360
1,089,403

2,932,192
3,044,961
3,070,807
• 2,794,880
2,108,546

291,337
324,083
352,173
230,155
173,663

1887
1888
1889
1890
1891

1892
1893
1894
1895
1896

27,483,855
14,642,999
10,003,242
11,275,885
12,651,248

14,333,534
7,836,684
3,140,172
7,878,613
6,650,578

32,030,030
33,809,405
23,546,945
8,779,290
24,763,445

22,606,756
29,656,427
18,163,853
6,981,369
20,042,730

10,604,810
10,056,225
10,196,605
10,466,160
11,491,310

4,972,928
4,084,276
3,909,809
4,605,274
5,395,687

1,189,153
583,799
140,285
224,821
296,930

1,032,374
586,238
120,036
173,296
247,529

2,691,249
1,986,746
2,083,438
2,104,126
1,931,611

188,563
122,613
78,871
45,351
106,624

1892
1893
1894
1895
1896

1897
1898
1899
1900
1901

12,057,735
14,240,252
10,428,163
19,786,614
20,860,805

7,460,084
11,026,765
4i908,427
12,473,366
17,012,659

31,077,440
26,733,965
23,344,475
25,613,410
20,834,060

25,817,631
27,869,091
20,241,932
22,682,755
17,718,656

12,147,225
10,725,380
12,606,835
13,257,925
15,728,130

5,360,630
5,975,364
6,184,585
7,588,703
10,511,305

712,428
571,707
454,790
475,385
686,810

939,491
670,022
491,642
431,778
490,517

1,605,811
2,001,911
1,409,474
2,011,500
1,939,993

125,121
52,933
77,572
121,460
92,201

1897
1898
1899
1900
1901

1902
1903
1904
1905
1906

30,667,212
23,533,800
23,148,133
21,001,852
17,646,005

22,276,507
18,806,761
24,040,540
18,240,660
13,792,358

16,024,715
20,990,245
18,246,325
18,067,905
30,725,825

13', 69 8,459
20,639,651
16,770,368
14,547,717
22,571,655

20,570,245
20,409,930
17,109,295
19,278,365
28,522,420

11,657,939
14,079,148
12,880,310
16,066,120
22,269,290

940,396
1,327,890
674,185
569,706
543,159

905,905
1,086,416
767,297
492,266
534,535

2,234,504
2,633,119
3,163,000
2,921,183
2,834,300

65,417
293,095
493,803
287,681
232,534

1902
1903
1904
1905
1906

Receipts

Shipments

Receipts

Shipments




Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15
Receipts and Shipments of Grain - St. Louis, Mo., 1867-1923

Vfhe&t
(Bu.)

Year

~

,

Corn
(Bu.)

Oats
(3u.)

Receipts

Shipments

Re ce ipt s

1907
1908
1909
1910
1911

17,775,947
19,097,395
21,432,317
19,702,989
17,076,505

15,249,491
16,310,986
19,585,010
15,173,132
12,163,785

35,117,920
22,867,110
22,719,025
22,349,390
23,621,410

26,137,718
15,822,605
15,814,957
14,616,393
13,187,370

30,195,600
25,717,905
18,582,670
22,286,520
20,343,850

1912
1913
1914
1915
1916

30,541,673
31,258,471
33,569,047
35,250,404
40,606,332

21,196,225
25,148,065
25,626,870
28,179,270
31,435,720

25,979,030
22,189,045
17,105,825
18,917,185
18,460,195

15,231,215
11>593,360
10,739,410
9,921,320
9,435,550

1917
1918
1919
1920
1921

30,359,894
37,731,818
43,725,847
35,974,738
48,716,393

25,060,400
21,065,500
31,749,920
26,204,150
36,246,540

22,249,732
25,707,161
20,636,170
26,386,499
29,515,548

1922
1923

39,457,251
36,577,938

32,246,230
28,850,035

33,376,434
32,400,484

Source:

S hipment s

Receipts

Rye
(Bu.)
Shipments

Barley
(Bu.)
Receipts

Year

Receipts

Shipments

21,393,665
20,017,470
15,612,955
15,106,450
12,956,330

420,964
319,691
243,949
335,059
237,315

464,445
338,515
235,940
338,345
174,330

2,964,158
2,965,639
2,837,700
2,475,165
2,302,917

49,180
333,555
487,080
119,138
152,470

1907
1908
1909
1910
1911

21,529,690
24,363,480
24,944,650
19,402,855
19,237,985

14,130,325
16,140,365
20,116,250
13,702,300
13,887,760

186,663
432,734
389,000
495,463
813,714

80,430
286,515
288,130
285,160
704,380

1,760,254
2,254,964
2,390,580
1,463,170
1,580,920

130,580
100,060
360,230
196,310
149,910

1912
1913
1914
1915
1916

13,425,400
16,589,260
12,071,105
14,971,170
21,424,045

30,842,635
32,884,465
32,711,190
30,676,185
26,940,085

26,890,800
27,271,340
23,025,360
22,354,695
19,891,990

460,432
418,333
355,277
483,989
391,593

365,290
286,820
190,070
328,060
147,880

1,726,644
905,883
1,161,600
1,145,746
829,627

160,310
480,680
387,900
302,585
254,440

1917
1918
1919
1920
1921

24,131,470
20,541,495

29,336,425
36,223,180

22,545,170
29,517,695

552,589
851,351

288,175
895,675

836,800
1,224,000

285,400
401,340

1922
1923

St* Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of 1893, p. 145\ 1903, p. 152; 1923, p. 74.

Shipments




Appendix AA
Receipts of Leading Commodities at St. Louis, Mo*, 1859-1883

Commodity
Bacon
t»

Barley
Beans
Beansj castor
Beef
Bran
Brooms
Butter
Cattle
Cheese
Coffee
Corn
Cotton
Dried Fruit
Flax Seed
Flour
Greaso
Gunnies
it

Hay
Hides
*»

Lard
n
Lead
Malt
Molasses
Nails
Oats
Onions
Pig Iron
Pork
n
it

Potatoes
Rope
Rye
Salt
it

Sugar
n

Tallow
Tobacco
meat
Whiskey & Wines
Wool
a

Unit
Cks.,tcs.,bbls.
Pieces
Bushels
Sks. & bbl»,
Pkgs •
Tcs. & bbls.
Sacks
Doz.
Pkgs.
Head
Boxes
Bags
Bushels
Bales
Pkgs •
Pkgs.
Bbls.
Pkgs.
Bdls.
Bales
Bales
Bales
Pes.
Bdls.
Tcs. & Bbls.
Kegs
Pigs
Sacks
Bbls.
Kegs
Bushels
Sks. & Bbls.
Tons
Bbls.
Pkgs.
Pes.
Sks. & Bbls.
Coils
Bushels
Bbls.
Sacks
Hhds.
.Bbls.
Boxes & Bags
Pkgs.
Hhds.
Bushels
Bbls.
Pkgs.

1859
10,380
18,356
242,262
18,973

1861
22,610
106,000
201,484
32,602

1,119

-

5,645
55,592
21,641
27,250
31,208
39,389
144,202
1,639,579

-

-

29,776
2,579
484,715
3,891
8,877
6,970
58,064
68,796
237,662

_

44,471
9,025
264,380
9,880
60,778
164,767
1,267,624
38,044
16,778
96,230
12,895

804:, 888
214,111
64,198
123,058
36,083
328,280
53,172
9,096
6,695
3,619
9,006
3,568,732
100,092
5,121

-

13,105
24,062
-

23,500
<?1,850
4,515,040
-

37,840
-

484,000
3,130
-

-

114,745
28,568
159,196
-

40,1.08
11,815
115,250
-

11,605
92,948
1,735,157
19,135
8,780
116,445
11,358
751,313
160,300
22,000
117,080
-

33,750
-

8,069
3,130
8,510
2,654,738
72,790
2,860

1863
16,014
230,092
182,270
52,227
1,806
2,427
3,606
6,391
18,327
33,171
22,404
25,824
1,361,310
26,833
22,828
10,031
689,242
4,556
1,947
1,996
171,138
56,337
147,637

1865
10,171
62,496
846,229
18,118
1 3 , 752
3,008
55,347
17,144
36,288
94,307
49,846
66,016
3,162,310
89,215
21,093
21,851
1,162,038
853
9,622
6,226
266,511
40,846
202,211
-

-

33,489
2,717
79,823
12,794
6,872
55,167
3,845,876
19,875
16,165
34,256
6,299
865,287
120,161
4,887
205,918
89,683
56,118
9,028
6,459
-

3,606
19,325
2,621,020
54,862
6,259

23,591
2,084
116,636
45,004
12,863
89,336
4,173,229
102,970
21,704
66,822
16,144
338,223
323,190
8,911
217,568
170,814
83,221
16,889
8,199
29,410
10,874
16,4a3
3,452,722
38,014
10,559

IIot reported®
Source; St, Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of 1865, p. 80; 1867, p* 86.

1867
12,384
58,004
705,215
10,751
32,998
6,798
86,581
8,427
21,326
74,164
76,118
98,617
5,155,480
40,508
24,023
20,347
944,075
1,437
3,252
9,044
178,992
30,750
146,421
.
11,910
21,666
13,567
144,555
39,171
9,103
190,634
3,445,388
40,315
30,027
92,071
11,486
730,461
173,865
15,844
250,704
141,674
79,025
19,730
19,819
29,924
7,875
18,584
3,571,593
37,455
2 ',040

1873
14,262
97,122
1,158,615
10,294
18,988
6,534
69,564
3,669
62,990
279.678
58,770
142,963
7,701,187
83,439
37,384
21,457
1,296,457
4,911
1,413
5,235
272,761
16,860
165,917
83,234
35,496
3,159
356,037
31,283
23,742
266,028
5,359,853
22,556
61,088
57,476
13,497
1,497,090

a
-

356,580
379,699
149,861
33,532
35,314
70,391
12,000
19,062
6,165,038
-

17,806

1883
&

a
2,860,798
39,592
a
1,918
•232,665
-

a
405,090
133,687
205,573
20,001,450
382,369
128,568
a
1,585,670
a
-

_
a

2,084
a

a
a
a
1,114,235
18,488
58,201
600,209
6,452,757
a
92,895
9,656

a
a
a
52,450
532,270
336,175

a
43,354
191,754
26,560

a
24,457
15,000,704
60,561

a

Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15
Receipts of Leading Commodities at St. Louis, Mo., 1865

Received by Boat
Commodity

Unit

Apples
Bacon
19
Barley
m

Bbls«
Pieces
Pkgs. or csks
Sacks
Bushels

Beans, castor
Boots and shoes
Bran
Bread
Canned Fruit

Sacks
Cases
Sacks
Boxes
Boxes

Cattle
Cement
Cheese
Coffee

Head
Cars
Bbls*
Boxes
Sacks

Cooperage
it
Corn
it
Cotton

For flour
For beer
Sacks
Bushels
Bales

Cotton
Fish
it
it
Flax Seed

Sacks
Kits
Pkgs.
Bbls*
Bbls.

Flax Seed
Flour
ti
Furniture
Glassware

Sacks
Bbls*
Sacks
Pieces
Pkgs#

Hay
Hemp
Hides
i»
Hogs

Bales
Bales
Pieces
Bdls*
Head

Household Goods
Iron, pieces
a.
Iron, pig
Lead

Pkgs .
Pes.
Bdls*
Tons
Pigs

»




From Upper
Mississippi
River
44,758
18,323

From
Missouri
River
-

50,239

-

-

140,195

From Lower
Miss issippi
River
1,934
-

21,705

-

-

•

—

«

-

-

7,356
-

-

-

mm

-

-

mm

—

—

14,006
-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

mm

-

mm

426,187

mm

-

3,669

-

22,492
20,233

-

mm
mm

mm

mm

14,006

-

9,491

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

mm

-

•

-

-

-

-

-

mm

-

-

-

536,739
205,854

83,128

-

2,896

86*343

mm

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

146,769
52,243
-

-

25,374

-

48,875

-

-

-

-

57,994
67,867
-

-

-

-

-

mm

-

-

-

8,370

-

-

-

•

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

13,160

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

22,492
20,233

2,896

-

-

-

-

-

1,649
6,923

-

-

-

From
From
St. Louis,
Ohio and
Alton and
Mississippi
Chicago R.R.
R.R.
mm

-

-

51,823
109,136
87,833
2,019
-

410,602
52,243
57,994
67,867
128,722
36,772
117,439

51,823
109,136
87,833
3,668
6,923

17,787
34,291
1,225
35,521

From
Iron
Mountain
R.R.
•

-

mm

-

mm

-

-

-

mm

—

mm

_

-

-

9,707
-

19,445

5,165

2,341

-

-

-

-

-

22,894

-

-

160,678
3,900
-

-

5,144
9,296
-

-

35,874
-

-

3,967
314,242
11,381

mm

65,143
3,683

12,472

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

1,562

479

-

2,839

10,362
400
266

-

-

-

-

112,658
27,703

17,213

-

-

-

-

—

-

-

-

42,339

2,839

-

-

-

-

•

-

-

42,268
66,581

-

*

-

mm

mm

-

-

-

-

mm

-

-

-

-

1,234
51

-

-

-

-

mm

5,825
132,726
10,634

-

mm

•*

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

—

—

11,137
3,715
-

-

-

-

-

mm

-

-

mm

-

mm

-

-

-

mm

mm

mm

—

-

-

-

-

-

-

mm

tm

-

-

-

-

2^876

16,581

46,972
775

mm

2,026
5,232

9,019
101

10,733
-

4,458
5,623
45,170
1,234
82

9,792
523,248
29,413

9,792
933,850.
81,656
57,994
67,867

99,856
mm

66,724
876

-

-

HP

•

*T

-

-

-

-

-

-

14,006
2,839
13,160
42,268
66,581

1,562
5 ,£23
45,170
1,234
82

-

12,165
45,382

7,356
17,213
22,492
20,233
42,339

296,170
32,003
266

-

-

43,218

93,447
102,853
1,225
209,431
297,645

5,206
13,346
1,313,376
237,857
83,394

-

-

-

56,638

30,095
34,291
1,225
35,521

mm

-

-

-

&

Rail

-

-

-

rm

-

River

-

—

18,973
15,184

-

-

-

15,236

12,308

Total
Rail

-

-

23,295
36,161

Fran
North
Missouri
R.R.
-

-

-

-

8,370

From
Pacific
H.R.

-

7,356
-

-

-

•

•

-

-

mm

-

-

173,910
297,645

-

-

-

-

-

•

-

24,953

-

12,010
297,645

63,352
68,562

-

-

36,772
67,112

-

From
St*Louis, Alton
and
Terre Haute E.R.

5,206
13,346
1,017,206
205,854
83,128

5,206
13,346
54,280

mm

-

-

-

-

-

79,847

16,660

Total
River

From
Ohio
River

-

-

-

From
Illinois
River

•

-

177*490

Received by Rail

14,191
70,071

228,578
36,772
184,163
876
8,370
51,823
109,136
87,833
17,859
76,994

Appendix D
Sheet 2 of 2

•Receipts of Leading Commodities at St, Louis* Mo., 1865

Received by Boat

Received by Rail
;

Unit

Commodity

Leather
Lumber
Malt
Merchandise
Mixed Agriculture & Animal Products

Rolls
Cars
Sacks
Pkgs#

Molasses
Mules
Nails
Oats

Bbls.
Head
Kegs
Sacks

Oats
Oil
Onions
M
Ore* iron

Bushels
Bbls.
Sacks
Bbls*
Cars

Paper
Pork
tt
n
i»

Bdls.
Bxs. or Csks.
Bbls.or Csks.
Pieces
Pkgs.

Potatoes
at
Pots and Kettles
Rye
Salt

Bbls*
Sacks
Pieces
Sacks
Sacks

Salt
Sheep
Stoves
Sugar
it

Bbls.
Head
Pieces
Boxes
Hhds.

Sugar
Sundries
Tobacco
n
n

Bbls*
Pkgs*
Hhds*
Plqgs.
Boxes

"Wheat
n

Sacks
Bushels
Bbls*
Bbls.
Boxes
Car3
Bales

n

Whiskey
Wine Glass
Wood
Wool
Source:



From Upper
Mississippi
River

Frcan
Missouri
River

From Lower
Mississippi
River

From
Illinois
Ri-ror

From
Ohio
River

From
St.Louis, Alton
and
Terre Haute R.R.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

—

28j882

—
-

4»

Total
River

-

5,904
-

-

-

476,119

—
•

-

-

-

575,575
276,088

-

-

mm

-

-

-

-

-

-

95,455
17,234

_
4,738
69,122
-

14,257
m

-

-

-

—

-

•

m

-

-

mm

-

23,239
56,388
2,925

-

-

9,962
37,391
147,143
*m

27,639.
183,012
60,586

-

-

57,764
42,8

•

-

•

m*

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

*

-

-

10,226
-

-

-

-

-

—

*

-

-

36,349

-

-

8,158
64,760
-

25,601
28,969
107,567
«

-

12,273
-

8,486
-

18,866
-

4,394

22,328
8,611

-

-

-

—

890

-

*

-

-

-

4,668

28,882

27,625
-

5,904
4,738
69,122
1,050,694
276,088
14,257
95,456
17,234
—

10,367
-

>

-

-

4,384

Onion Merchants' Exchange, Annual Report of 1865 (1866) pp. 87-96.

584
-

-

-

77,852
-

—

-

—

7,578
44,807

18,683

1,100

-

mm

-

Very small

Small

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

15,417

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

••

-

-

-

890
27,625
4,668

3,471

1,696

2,500

5,332
139
2,787
-

67,591
-

1,072
16,080
84
851

Ml

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

64,294
-

-

3,582

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

—

-

-

569
1,941

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

mm

_

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

22,076

_
-

-

—

418

21,287
w

3,965

-

-

-

-

-

-

•

—

502

_
39
5,252

-

-

-

502

20,241
154,429
19,783
11,861

-

4

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

—

-

-

-

-

251
-

3,147
••

37,910
21,774
10,153
27,213

-

45,424

-

—

••

1,952
386
1,268

86,175
139
3,898
38,664

-

-

£

3,516
-

-

-

83,246

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

7,445
7,113

-

mm

-

-

-

-

18,469
803
25,433
28,882
-

-

-

-

2,039
334

4,384

-

-

11,861

2,968
3,146

-

-

-

-

2,438
3,633

1,014,640
378,496
10,441
24,598
77,852

18,469
803
25,433

-

-

-

1,820
15,794

14,889

—

-

10,843
78,411

-

11,906

—

743

-

126,433
10,226
4,394
22,328
8*611

-

-

-

2,042

-

-

Total
River
&
Rail

Total
Rail

-

8,111

-

From
North
Missouri
R.R.

803

-

Small

18,938
19,419

-

-

Small

18,888
1,504

-

352,724
128,873
9,698
13,647

mm

35,797
247,772
8,486
86,187
65,318

-

-

25,433

-

—

-

44,327

-

-

-

—

-

-

-

Relatively small

From
Pacific
R.R.

From
Iron
Mountain
R.R.

12,749

-

13,252
Small amount
Small amount
17,332

-

27,386

2,212

-

12,273
9,962
60,630
261,295
3,353

-

590,2Q3
249,623

3,508

From
From
St, Louis,
Ohio and
Alton and
Mississippi
Chicago R.R.
R.R.

7,667
-

5,468
386
1,268
236,327
-

820
9,488
-

2,569

201

5,917

—

—

—

5,904
4,738
89,363
1,205,123
295,871
26,118
95,456
17,234
502
98,448
10,101
64,528
299,959
3,353
73,707
269,546
8,486
86,187
75,471
153,646
10,226
4,394
29,773
15,724
8,557
27,625
10,136
386
1,268
1,250,967
378,496
11,261
34,086
77j852
5,917
4,384




Appendix E
Sheet 1 of 4

St* Louis Receipts By River and Rail, 1873

Commodity

Unit

Bbls.
Cks « & Tcs.
Boxes
Pkgs.
Pieces

Apples
Bacon
it

»!

H

Barley
Beans, castor
Boots and shoes
Bran

Sacks
Bushels
Sacks
Cases
Sacks

Butter
Cattle
Cement
Cheese
Coal

Pkgs «
Head
Bbls.
Boxes
Bushels

Coffee
Cooperage

Sacks
For flour
For pork
For whiskey
For lard-tcs.

»t

«t
tt
tt

Total
Receipts
River and Rail

Total
Reoeipts
by River

Upper
Mississippi

Lower
Mississippi

Receipts by Individual Waterways
,
Arkansas
Cumberland
Missouri
Illinois
and
and
White
Tennessee

80,451
9,151
3,343
1,765
97,122

40,830
6,436
1,344
976
11,300

19,584
5,905
1,212
644
2,364

5,259
122
17
30
409

14,273
146
54
117
1,582

155,385
785,950

90,287

80,554

9,302

399

580

1,561
. 270
602

279,678
79,793
58,771
29,058,795

9,982
9,788
59,472
2,978
1,535,511

9,437
6,018
2,345
2,518

246
692
190
390

142j963
2,319
50,631
51,406
50,757

9,328
1,352
21,388
10,868
30,399

62
1,257
5,416
342
23,543

9,266
95
11,215
4,455
2,424

8,982
401,075
6,622,413
83,439
864

4,349
319,371
819,013
32,375
98

104
149,257
22,000

174
3,944

8,473
7,671
8,476
26,781
21,457

25
40
92
14
121

1,250,250
39,252
101,668
272,761
16,860

213,883
9,536
68,571
72,512
8,133

94,172
4,551
15,546
71,388
307

88,895
454
4,907

165,917
83,234
973,512
171,934
211,587

33,738
14,809
46,888
76,524
84,905

4,746
4,047
20,080

20,038
9,120
2,645
26,583
3,053

1,639
270
2,224

18,978
89,605
69,565

62,998

25
-

—

-

309
1

-

3

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

mm

-

-

—

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

53

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

478

564

-

-

-

-

279
1,038
2,890
64
35,511

20
2,040

mm

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

mm

-

-

-

-

—

—

••

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

1,931
4,554
506

-

32
-

-

-

-

-

1,405
258
61
185
6,945

Red
and
Ouachita

Ohio

mm

2,826
1,147
3,926

•a
60

310

54,047
6
1,500,000

-

••

-

-

-

-

*

Cooperage
Corn

For lard-kegs
Sacks
Bushels
Bales
Sacks

»

Cotton
it

Fish

Flax Seed

Bbls.
Half Bbls.
Kits
Boxes
Sacks

Flour
Furniture
Glassware
Hay
Hemp

Bbls.
Pkgs.
Pkgs.
Bales
Bales

Hides

Pieces
Bundles
Head
Bundles
Pieces

»
t»
tt

tt

Hogs
Iron & Steel
it

tt

-

32,161
98

—

25
40
92
14

—
-

-

84

-

218

4,071
75,207
797,013
-

-

90,963
*

—

-

-

—

••

-

-

-

—

-

66

7
•

••

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

—

—

—

*•

-

-

-

-

—

-

-

-

—

—

37

51

-

-

141

-

-

-

-

19,440
-

35
710
—

3,683
962
8,583

11,259
240
414
7,775
1,845
507
15,580

-

-

-

—

t

mm
•

-

-

«a

—

730

8
-

92
1

112
4,291
48,073

5
10

10
22

2,594
142

49,510
81,237

54

••

377
397

:




Appendix E
Sheet 2 of 4
St. Louis Receipts By River and Rail, 1873

Commodity-

Iron & Steel
Iron, pig
Lead
Leather
Lumber

Unit

Total
Receipts
by River

Receipts by Individual Waterways
Upper
Mississippi

719
12,735
92
1,160

3,348
15,767
6,384
1,774

Lumber
M. Ft.
Malt
Sacks
Mdse. & Sundries Pkgs.
n
n
Cars
Molasses
Bbls.

13,050
31,283
1,057,779
9,360
23,742

13,050
11,860
160,309
22
4,797

231
11,343
70,401
21
7

7,100
467
56,049

Nails
Oats
it

243,100
433,564
3,358,400
64,910
17,504

181,415
304,272
39,900
21,939
3,594

. 82
288,372
HI
250
3,117

2,706
266

8,063
14,494
349,357
57,476
12,529

2,023
9,325

1,646
6,982

330
2,298

41,093
2,127

20,396
1,669

Pkgs.
Pieces
Sacks
Bbls.
Bushels

968
1,497,090
81,911
35,820
450,955

63
371,165
58,471
14,160
5,000

57
280,328
49,588
4,475

Sacks
Bushels
Sacks
Bbls.
Head

48,534
237,300
149,861
379,699
86,439

33,111
7,000
149,131
339,188
11,853

27,509

Hhds.
Bbls.
Boxes •
Bags
Hhds.

33,532
35,314
50,656
19,735
19,062

21,410
401
49,846
19,595
6,367

54,309
1,041,817
3,530,275
17,806
72,592

18,541
863,436
134,175
2,625
41,816

Onions
*

Ore, Iron
Pork,
M
Pork
it
Potatoes
it
n
Rye
n
Salt
i»
Sheep
Sugar
M
It
It
Tobacco
Tobacco
Wheat
it
Wool
Window Glass

Kegs
Sacks
Bushels
Bbls.
Bbls.
Sacks
Bbls.
Tons
Bbls.
Bxs. or Csks.

Bxs. & Pkgs.
Sacks
Bushels
Pkgs.
Boxes

-

-

2,049

Lower
Mississippi

12,408
61,088
356,037
26,153
7,749

Oils, petroleum
n
other

Tons
Tons
Pigs
Rolls
Cars

Tital
Receipts
River and Rail

-

6,120
29
-

-

-

55
9,079
-

-

1,990
16,682
289,621
123,875
1,409
-

Source: Union Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1873 (1874) pp. 100-103*

87
1,298
-

-

4,701

-

132
210

2

36
9
-

-

2,230
9,061
—

30
149,131
30
427
21,359
401
49,846
19,595
404
1,655
151,854
-

619
40

77

Arkansas
and
White

Cumberland
and
Tennessee

-

-

1,047
298

-

-

-

309
50
6,275
1
8
_
9,846
39,900

889
-

-

7,417

218

310
687

-

mm

' Red
and
Ouach ita
106
-

-

-

122

163

-

-

426

4,095

872

17,070

mm

-

-

-

_
5,788

Ohio

-

2,007
-

80

mm

mm

178,627

1
mm

-

-

mm

-

-

-

-

-

-

mm

-

-

-

-

47
8

37
-

-

-

Missouri

172

-

-

Illinois

39
10

20,622
439
6
86,905
5,997
116
5,000
3,906
7,000
-

mm

•

-

-

-

-

-

-

—

-

-

-

—

—

-

-

-

-

3,932
656
53

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

405

50

—

1,642

-

24

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

338,993

1,149

""

-

-

-

-

—

mm

-

-

-

-

—

3

3,955

72
204,820
10,300
60

43
217,095
-

491
—

-

""

-

-

-

-

110
1,198

-

21,557
267

mm

-

51

—

••

-

-

-

—

-

—

r-

6

9

22

4
46

-

-

3

1
41,776

63
-

-

42

Appendix E
Sheet 1 of 4

St* Louis Receipts By River and Rail, 1873
•

Unit

Commodity

Apples
Bacon
»

Bbls.
Cks. & Tcs.
Boxes
Pkgs
Pieces

Total
Receipts
by Rail
39,621
2,715
1,999
789
85,822

Chicago,
Ohio &
Indianapolis Missouri St. Louis, St. Louis,
St. Louis
Alton &
&
Mississippi
Kansas
City
Iron
Mountain
<Sb
Pacific
R.R.
St.Louis R.R. St.Louis R.R.
& Northern & Southern
Vandalia
4,669
2,286
7,221
3,366
381
2,273
4,387
300
369
404
1
1,208
27
295
1,097
108
377
18
72
121
355
19
70
161
17
43
2,527
2,802
1,472
48,343
26,858
mm

Barley
n
Beans, castor
Boots & shoes
Bran

Sacks
Bushels
Sacks
Cases
Sacks

65,098
785,950
17,339
89,335
67,341

2,028
900
3,429
6,053
1,592

4,039
66,600
6,493
9,148

72,734
2,058

Butter
Cattle
Cement
Cheese
Coal

Pkgs.
Head
Bbls.
Boxes
Bushels

53,016
269,890
20,321
55,793
27,523,284

763
2,030
4,049
25,421
5,118,375

11,402
1,534
506
18,359
75,000

Coffee
Cooperage

Sacks
For flour
For pork
For whiskey
For lard-tcs.

133,635
967
29,243
40,538
20,358

64,351
600
15,646
16,971
8,8*78

408

For lard-kegs
Sacks
Bushels
Bales
Sacks

4,633
81,704
5,803,400
51,064
766

2,633
1,337
99,600
130

8,448
7,631
8,384
26,767
21,336

2,875
800
2,467
2,372
1,177

611
3,117
1,027
1,443
32

1,174
139
1,276
5,-995
21

13,356

1,036,367
29,716
33,097
200,249
8,727

73,124
18,819
4,480
27,792
24

84,301
1,965
2,780
24,668

40,732
•796
1,966
39,530
3

111,694
24
14
15,537
4,121

132,179
68,425
926,624
95,410
126,682

2,565
2,967
16,165
22,506
50,776

2,509
4,862
32,475
13,869
12,681

40
89
29,286
1,464
5,680

43,779
31,347
230,026

•

•

n
Cooperage
Corn
M
Cotton
*

Pish
it
W
Flax Seed

Bbls.
Half Bbls.
Kits
Boxes
Sacks

Flour
Furniture
Glassware
Hay
Hemp

Bbls.
Pkgs.
Pkgs.
Bales
Bales

Hides
it
Hogs
Iron & Steel
n
n

Pieoes
Bundles
Head
Bundles
Pieces

*




Receipts by Individual Railroads

-

-

-

19,333
179,550
1,008
24
3,700

1,326

602
1,512
1,400
2,483
388,350

2,449
53,319

5,599
73,205
1,003

30,104
432
9,210
6,591
3,597,200

237
70,722

93
8,475

36
1,012
140
20
4,250

3,007

3,302

21,077

20,070
367

8,846

13

-

-

-

1,200
2,075
537

300
673
1,592,200

740
4,033
344,800

mm

mm

&

16,973
340,000
1,395
281
5,514

18

918
150
3,763

-

Rockford,
Rock Island
Pacific & St.Louis
80
723
40
7
34
26
1,386

Atlantic

-

-

-

611
104

-

-

-

778
965
2,850

_
53,403
17,403
1,626,000 1,014,600
6
1,317
53
mm

_
35
35
-

-

36

95
234
-

6,378
3,655
88,259
-

53
53,426
4,514
20,965
5,380
357,804
253
140

-

593
74
-

•

247
-

-

84
-

28,425
130
20
-

-

17
497
154
219
16
-

16,624
9,070
564
24,133
5,649

1,918
112>050
1,428
1,262
2,918

-

299
-

135
9
200

-

20
-

-

4,545
2,755
1,590

-

405
2,513
120,000
70

m

-

516
619
318
179
257

-

—

34,000
2,287
551

17,863
83,250
-

Belleville
&

Southern Illinois
438
-

2
25
-

-

3,607
-

184

13,273

232
1,053
360
50

31
585

Toledo,
St. Louis
Illinois :Missouri- Cairo
Wabash &
&
&
&
Kansas
Western Southeastern St. Louis & Texas St.Louis
93
162
13,288
254
27
24
13
12
126
1
31
12
49
12
1,862
384
188
mm

316
1,350
50
2,350
297

360
-

3,211
19
24,020

9,995,925

931
200
4,211
1,753
461,026

3,155,975

•a

—

12,546

15

-

-

-

2,550
-

1,110
-

367
235,200

-

890
-

162
55
-

-

-

2,061
14,692
150
500
646
687,200

-

280

-

-

—

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

10

-

83,772
6,127
19,352
17,462
2

3,530
180
16

7,014

3,080
1,023
25,069
23,415
34,103

2,020
3,296
32,476

34
39
42,309

48,097

-

-

-

*

-

-

-

-

3,157
2,687
3,261
10,400

161

—

126,696
59
169

38,588
1,249
4,233
2,560

—

—

-

1,053
1,283
3,864
-

615

1,782
2,488
39,922
9,202
16,404

185
1,976
445
-

-

655
2,062
1,214
-

1,085
17,800
5

m

-

-

3,760
-

625
2,250
1,225
31
-

428
62,310
mm

-

1,258
5
677
17
mm

4,535,734

-

182,975

-

-

-

-

-

10

-

mm

-

mm

-

-

160
32,000
18,544
32

-

-

-

-

-

-

_

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

8
193,096
523

-

49,164
-

735

-

2,101
1,861
11,634
516
598

-

-

-

2,567

75

10,965

83,852
-

-

mm

-

_

-

11,160
47
34,488
4,541
105,024

52

-

-

-

mm

1,139
179
6
-

Appendix
E
Sheet 1 of 4

St* Louis Receipts By River and Rail, 1873

Unit

Commodity

Receipts
by Rail

Iron & Steel
Iron, pig
Lead
Leather
Lumber

Tons
Tons
Pigs
Rolls
Cars

9,060
45,321
349,653
24,379
7,749

Lumber
Malt
Mdse.& Sundries
n
»
Molasses

M.Ft *
Saoks
Pkgs.
Cars
Bbls.

—

Nails
Oats

Kegs
Sacks
Bushels
Bbls.
Bbls.

it

Oils* petroleum
Oils, other
Onions
»
Ore, iron
Pork
it-

Pork
tt

Potatoes
tt
it

Rye
it

Salt
t!

Sheep

-

-

—

651
63,260
858
54

90
22,391
1,169
828

4,975
177,522
301
303

4,869
27

9,636
23,944
191,100
5,326
4,341

27
109
280,265

-

-

—

-

-

-

61,685
129,292
3,318,500
42,971
13,910

21,013
2,397
106,600
24,126
4,912

1,573
419
289,250
955
374

1,457
1,611
65,650
4,760
706

200
46,919
816,400
5

400
46,062
1,472,500
101
424

6,040
5,169
349,357
16,383
10,402

10
188

4
42

591
235

2,966
613

93
24

1,277
2,332
10
9,129
762

Pkgs*
Pes.
Sacks
Bbls.
Bushels

905
1*125,925
23,440
21,660
445,955

510
1,845
971
4,778
9,100

2
276,989
2,339
2,689
16,100

Sacks
Bushels
Saoks
Bbls*
Head

15,423
230,300
730
40,511
74,586

103

869
33,600

4,521
870

12,122
34,913
810
140
12,695

5,527
27,169
118
140
1,497

395

49

1,361

7,918

397

136

870

35,768
178,381
3,396,100
30,776
15,181

20,752
1,530
42,350
3,483
186

1,289
2,863
397,950
7,564
529

1,555
2,802
116,200
2,929
17

1,055
76,955
1,433,300

3,621
66,430
529,900

3,425
9,028
9,450

1,717
3,044
85,750
11,100
228

1,038
3,679
46,200

Sacks
Bbls.
Ions
Bbls.
Bxs. or Csks*

-

-

-

-

M

-

-

-

1,208
1,621

2,599
7,335

851
280
3,205

_
271,743
4,271
780
85,050

24
424,039
5,978
647
277,900

51
1,400

2,968
52,500

9,465
104,300

250
-

19
-

-

775
1,353

2,480
93,364
1,913

-

-

99,220
169
573

Bxs. & Pkgs*
Sacks
Bushels
Boxes
Pkgs.

-

1,199

_
34

795
421
_
mm

-

SourcexttaionMerchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1873 (1874) pp. 100-103



-

9,262
127,241
2,435
537

Tobacco
Wheat
»»
Window Glass
Wool

it

-

750
150,623
665
13,620

Tobacco

»
»

mm

19,423
897,470
9,338
18,945

Hhds*
Bbls*
Boxes
Bags
Hhds.

Sugar

Receipts by Individual Railroads
St.
Louis,
St.
Louis,
St. Louis Atlantic
Roekford,
Ohio &
Chicago,
Indianapolis Missouri
Belleville
Toledo,
St .Louis
Illinois Missouri- Cairo
&
&
& »
&
&
Kansas
City
Iron
Mountain
Rock
Inland
Mississippi
Alton &
&
Wabash
&
k
Kansas
Paoific
& Northern & Southern
Vandal ia
Paoifio & St.Louis Southern Illinois Western
R.R.
St.Louis R.R. St .Louis R.R.
Southeastern St. Loui3 & Texas St .Louis
200
891
820
770
1,850
2,276
400
223
140 '
380
550
420
140
$
140
760
31,249
736
390
150
11,786
10
50
50
_
_
_
63
92,830
59,037
123,142
74,571
10
10,720
104
83
2,563
15
3,434
841
1,377
4,553
689
117
179
129
969
81
13
5,284
11
8
367
48
521
7
7
8

-

9,009
-

-

25,115
-

138

-

-

-

-

-

4,393

-

6,127

-

141
5

-

2
—

-

395
2,412
350
-

730
1,185
580
4,321
16
692
-

-

911

564
721
-

2,544
36
350
58,087
1,476
264
16,800
523
2,100
-

415
1,289

7,555
92
72

3,235
123
35

-

103
460
448

2
2

60
409

25
51

mm

-

180

450
mm

7,158
19
-

1,050
-

-

-

16,628

mm

-

-

59,725
1,361
926
5,950
843
28,700
-

1,046

mm
mm

439
140
700
-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

••

-

882

_
25,150
4,516
8,645
22,050
50
4,200
-

1,348
6,523

-

-

374
172

33,615
87

*m

6,801
393,750
352
7

-

412

-

131
612

-

7,981
309
23,400

mm

-

896
16,425
635

1,881
888
42,250
7,512
2,574

1,814
179,400

35
3
69,082

-

115,387
246
2,923

2,547
28
7,150
50
290

711
13,650
-

4,552
216

—

-

176

319
11,942
417
-

M

-

3,506
12

1,247
87
-

-

10,128
3,698
111,150

-

465
-

-

-

•

-

-

-

19
16

-

•

-

1

-

•

-

-

5

-

-

-

•

-

_
383
35
5,950

-

-

394
3,500

-

-

-

—

-

-

-

*

1,189
388
44
1,050

-

22
-

157

748

•

16,153

_
31
20
700
•

97

-

-

•

-

-

-

mm

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

—

12

1

22

-

37

-

587
622
33,950

399
646
41,300
5,348
161

160
1,288
55,650

mm

29

-

258

1
-

-

6

163
1,060
191,100

6
1,633
19,250

-

1,387

60

Appendix F

St. Louis Shipments By River and Rail, 1865

Commodity
Apples
Bacon
it

m
Bagging
Barley
Beans
»

Beans, oastor
Beef
*

Bran
Bread
Brooms
Butter
Candles
Cattle
n

Cement
Cheese
Coffee
Corn
»

Corn meal
m
*
Cotton
Crackers
Crockery
Eggs
Fish
F1 Omit

Fruit, dried
Furs & Felts
Glass
Grease
Gunnies
•

Hay
Hemp
Hides
Hogs
Hops
Horses
Iron
M
M
n

Lard
*

Chicago, St.Louis, Alton
Ohio and
Total
Mississippi A.&St.L. & Terre Haute Railroad
R.R.
R.R.
R.R.
318
2,511
1,867
141
Bbls.
878
544
88
2,544
Csks.
17
1,339
33
Sacks & Pkgs.
156
Pieces
48
296
119
Pieces
789
1,869
4,570
273
Sks.
614
142
29
Sks«
497
50
Bbls.
a
Ska.
631
125
Tcs.
297
64
11
Bbls.
4,427
Ska*
1,780
Bxs. & Bbls.
72
Doz.
50
Pkgs.
9,669
7,086
151
868
Bxs.
a
120
125
Cars)
12,043
Head)
Bbls.
2,979
130
154
37
Bx8.
14,367
85
729
375
Bags & Ska.
71,982
100
71
Sks.
Bushel8
615
Bbls.
940
Sks •
10,091
72,553
12,765
49,534
Bales
6,103
181
267
Pkgs.
Bxs*
82
Pkgs.
Pkgs.
59,161
84,852
212,752
35,286
Bbls.
46,618
Sks .
1,888
235
1,018
Pkgs.
3,550
48
Bdls. & Pkgs.
373
2,844
Bxs.
98
279
332
Bbls.
1,673
53
782
666
Bales
2,013
350
145
Bdls.
18,123
Bales
1,648
11,619
1,483
6,297
Bales
105,948
30,478
42,235
25,021
Pes.
5,750
Head
88
88
Bales
Head
a
3,921
Pes.
10,033
769
Bdls.
33,629
Slabs
Tons
2,551
274
507
Bbls.
98
9,076
509
3,612
6,118
Tcs.
Unit

^ o t available•
Sources



Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1865 (1866), pp. 106-116.

New
Orleans
Boats
53,438
12,171
3,715
2,498
376
1,042
2,241

Total
by
River
88,254
33,753
26,616
991
10,812
6,240
2,185
6,617

1,723
9,061
33,516
161,817
13,061
5,363
27,133

3,222
11,789
156,278
310,693
23,426
14,447
50,923

23,558
175
7,351
2,402
443,686

98,371
4,906
51,773
7,518
225
1,826

34,669
a
20,763
42,596
1,076,326
8,364
37,548
2,941
760
53,550
a
8,094
a
1,210,492
230,125
10,741
1,205
14,952
309
3,557
20,598
147,295
16,801
161,171
12,119
283
a

2,718
2,559

18,671
36,957
16,131
5,964
3,103

20,493
638
378
21,208
3,093
4,719
875,605
4,189
325
281
428

Total
River and
Rail
$0,?65
36,297
27,955
1,147
11,108
10,810
2,799
7,114
a
3,347
12,086
160,705
312,473
23,498
14,497
60,592
a
46,712
a
23,742
56,963
1,148,308
8,364
38,163
3,881
73,313
59,653
a
8,176
a
1,423,244
276,743
12,629
4,555
14,952
588
5,230
22,611
165,418
28,420
267,119
17,869
371
a
a
28,704
70,586
16,131
8,515
12,179

Commodity
Lard
n
Lead
Leather
Lumber
Malt
Merchandise
Molasses
N
It

Mules
Nails
Oats
M

Oils
Onions
it

Paper

Unit
Kegs
Pkgs.
Pigs
Rolls
M. Feet
Sks.
Pkgs.
Bbls.
Half Bbls.
Kegs
Head
Kegs
Sks.
Bushels
Bbls.
Sks.
Bbls.
Rolls & Bdls.

Ohio and
Chioago, St.Louis, Alton
Mississippi A.&St.L. & Terre Haute
R.R.
R.R.
R.R.
310
CddO 1
309
1,057
138
299

(

Total
Railroad
-

661

40
436

43

a
4,494
13,570
3,999
169,958
930
291
886

464

402

98

65

193

79

957
83

15,388
48,184

3,147

1,723
(161

3,078
(744

117

1,074

10,733
1,985
362
8,429

2,341
236
536

2,088

3,326

9,333
177
1,091

212
216

(547

643
706

4,906
5,806
3,566
7,169
8,707
4,545
48,289
9,528
1,171
241
350
1,684
2,497
8,807
369

-

(

P10W3

Pork
N
It
It

Potatoes
•

Powder
Rags
Rope
Rye
Salt
n

Seed
•t

Sheep
Shipstuffs
Shot
Soap
Sugar
Stores
Sugar
n
Tallow
Tobacco
it
it

Wheat
Whiskey
White Lead
Wool

Bbls.
Casks
Pkgs.
Pes.
SkS.
Bbls.
Kegs & Bbls.
Pkgs. & Bdls
Coils
Sks.
Bbls.
Sks.
Sks.
Bbls.
Head
Sks.
Sacks
Bxs.
Hhds.
Bbls.
Bxs. & Bags
Bbls.
Hhd.
Bxs.
Pkgs.
Sks.
Bbls.
Kegs
Pkgs.

New
Orleans
Boats
4,459
5,371

8,205
211,907
539
216
763
5,613
369,826
34,800
5,886
21,336
14,637
1,181
743
45,030
902
2,165

-

5,518
1,102
4,101
62

(

2,874
(108

(

1,024
4,191
1,091
411

34

2,361
1,003

136
50
85

361
36

121

762

1,136

69
3,354

54
3,382

5,487

5,843

3,321

121
1,526
1,751

524
12,900
717

6,913
19,585
939
2,964
6,376

9,670
1,565
189
12,504
11,322
12,882
25,007
7,265
21,572
8,714

74,079
57,302
3,546
52,644
2,204
2,739
531
4,683
1,226
21,140
14
2,563
1,979
1,534
20,635
11,208
9,502
2,698

Total
iotal
by
River and
River
Rail
S,?5fl
8,205
7,050
7,924
a
a
6,229
10,723
18,304
4,734
34,913
30,914
1,001,412 1,171,370
8,449
9,379
2,130
1,839
10,209
11,095
a
a
47,595
62,983
758,809
710,625
48,628
48,628
20,705
31,438
51,590
53,575
21,242
21,604
124,522
116,093
a
a
100,369
109,702
3,326
3,503
5,858
6,949
525
525
137,452
142,358
100,311
106,117
14,899
18,465
1,695
8,864
88,782
80,075
14,420
9,875
60,959
109,248
14,800
24,328
1,705
534
782
1,023
8,330
8,680"
6,391
4,707
a
a
59,649
68,456
1,852
1,483
a
a
53,069
43,399
8,950
10,515
491
302
15,289
2,785
55,787
44,465
46,316
33,434
29,968
4,961
40,722
33,457
60,457
38,885
9,394
680




Appendix AA
St. Louis Shipments by River and Rail, 1873

Commodity

Unit

Totals
River & Rail

Total River

Apples
Ale & Beer
Bacon
•t
N

Bbls.
Pkgs.
Cks. & Too.
Boxes
Pkgs.

52,832
167,495
93,899
10,419
21,869

29,228
95,989
64,286
4,576
7,408

23,604
71,506
29,613
5,844
14,461

Bacon
Bagging
Barley

132,104
84,228
21,746
74,865
8,766

24,906
55,343
3,571

Beans

Pieces
M
SackB
Bushels
Pkgs.

3,878

107,198
28,885
18,175
74,865
4,888

Beef
Bran
Candles
Castor Beans
Cattle

Bbls. & Tcs.
Sacks
Boxes
Sacks
Head

28,595
471,447
71,413
11,167
180,662

2,393
213,729
31,314
31
7,732

26,202
257,718
40,099
11,136
172,930

Cheese
Coffee
Corn
w
Corn Meal

Boxes
Sacks
Sacks
Bushels
Bbls.

60,294
142,778
1,024,629
2,699,344
358,736

23,596
20,825
786,894
1,373,969
331,563

36,698
121,958
237,635
1,325,375
23,173

Cotton
Dried Fruit
Eggs
Flour
Grease

Bales
Pkgs.
Pkgs.
Bbls.
Bbls.

70,949
42,006
30,606
2,506,215
10,778

1,616
12,027
14,915
1,272,209
2,767

Hay
Hemp
Hides
n

Bales
Bale 8
Pes.
Bndls•
Head

136,314
6,096
102,252
158,162
224,873

Tcs.
Bbls.
Kegs
Pkgs.
Pigs
Cars
M. Feet

96,976
4,958
59,820
39,863
216,040
7,549
4,396

*

Hogs
Lard
*

it
M
Lead
Lumber
m

I
Commodity

Total Rail

Unit

Totals
River & Rail

Total River

Total Rail

103,932
5,390,320
36,679
19,251
6,037

44,414
1,583,753

Kegs
SackB
Bushels
Pkgs.
Tons

20,472
650,195
289,329
20,390
179,079

7,599
567,155
11,407
115,327

12,873
83,040
289,329
8,983
65,752

Tons
Bbls.
Csks. & Tcs.
Boxes
Pkgs.

57,571
105,876
34,229
4,192
3,164

15,474
93,736
7,379
374
1,308

42,097
12,140
26,850
3,818
1,856

Pork
Potatoes
Rice
Rope ds Cordage
Rye

Pieces
Pkgs.
Pkgs.
Coils
Sacks

342,565
153,893
12,019
42,312
37,220

6,260
68,040
2,771
15,589
25,225

336,305
85,853
9,248
26,723
11,995

69,333
29,979
15,691
1,234,006
8,011

Rye
Salt
Salt
Sheep
Sugar

Bushels
Sacks
Bbls.
Haad
Hghda.

122,907
35,978
230,936
18,902
3,566

20,468
68,315
6,688
884

122,907
15,510
162,624
12,214
2,682

114,048
440
1,204
1,824
9,794

22,266
5,656
101,048
156,338
215,079

Sugar
M
Soap
Tallow
Tobacco

Bbls.
Bags
Boxes
Tcs. & Bbls.
Hghds.

152*198
25,168
91,431
12,517
19,708

31,303
1,313
42,598
546
2,762

120,895
23,855
48,833
11,971
11,946

31,518
3,192
48,967
24,430
13,228

65,458
1,766
10,853
15,433
202,812
7,549

Tobacoo-Mfgrd.
Wheat
R
Whiskey
White Lead
Wool
Zinc

Pkgs.
Sacks
Bushels
Bbls.
Pkgs.
Bales
Slabs

252,034
59,848
1,075,628
89,201
327,867
17,915
43,598

70,014
18,696
17,200
40,397
122,398
845

182,020
41,152
1,058,428
48,804
105,469
17,070
43,598

-

-

4,396

-

Sourcet Union Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of 1873 (1874) pp. 98-99

Malt
Merchandise
w
Molasses
w

'

Molasses
Oats
n
Onions
Ore
Pig Iron
Pork
n
«

n

Sacks
Pkgs.
Cars
Bbls.
1 /Z bbls.

-

5,181
2,485

-

-

-

59,518
3,806,567
36,670
14,070
3,552




Appendix H
Receipts and Shipments of Cattle, Sheep, Hogs, Horses and Mules - St. Louis, 1867-1923

Year

Receipts

Cattle
Sheep
74,146
62,974
1867
115,352
79,315
1868
1869
124,565
96,626
201,422
94,477
» 1870
118,889
199,527
1871
263,404
1872
115,904
1873
279,678
86,434
360,925
114,913
1874
1875
335,742
125,679
349,043
1876
157,831
411,969
1877
200,502
168,095
406,235
1878
1879
420,654
182,648
1880
424,720
205,969
503,862
1881
334,426
443,169
1882
443,120
405,090
1883
398,612
450,717
380,822
1884
1885
386,220
362,858
377,550
328,985
1886
417,425
1887
464,828
456,669
1888
546,875
1889
508,190
358,945
358,496
1890
629,014
779,499
1891
402,989
801,111
1892
376,922
397,725
1893
903,257
773,571
359,896
1894
851,275
510,660
1895
632,872
955,613
1896
660,380
1897
960,763
477,091
795,611
1898
432,566
1899
766,032
1900
795,800
434,133
534,115
1901
969,881
540,443
1,181,628
1902
1,209,121
565,836
1903
746,109
1,261,532
1904
690,378
1,254,236
1905
1,314,826
650,784
1906
1,323,208
622,213
1907
724,781
1908
1,293,564
1909
835,973
1,418,005
776,665
1,356,232
1910
1,206,423
1,024,402
1911
1,052,208
1912
1,298,295
1913
1,181,201
976,122
777,776
1,073,386
1914
690,180
1915
1,045,660
700,601
1916
1,251,304
561,741
1,436,464
1917
1,542,757
545,053
1918
723,071
1,522,221
1919
614,857
1920
1,275,258
1,116,175
649,631
1921
1,448,952
632,692
1922
1,467,292
575,934
1923
a
Not reported.
Sourcei St* Louis Merchants' Exchange,

Shipments

Hogs
298,241
301,560
344,848
310,850
633,370
759,076
973,512
1,126,586
628,569
877,160
896,319
1,451,634
1,762,724
1,840,684
1,672,153
846,228
1,151,785
1,474,475
1,455,535
1,264,471
1,052,240
929,230
1,120,930
1,359,789
1,380,569
1,310,311
1,105,108
1,489,856
1,440,342
1,99 7,895
2,065,283
2,136,328
2,147,144
2,156,972
2,236,945
1,494,395
1,785,873
2,361,623
2,407,336
2,411,191
2,572,126
3,199,922
3,076,065
2,548,480
3,634,851
3,023,739
3,102,421
2,871,558
2,985,144
3,647,367
3,362,041
3,616,087
3,863,137
3,690,124
3,891,016
4,086,563
5,389,177

Horaea & Mules
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
27,175
27,516
22,271
22,652
27,878
33,289
46,011
42,365
42,718
44,913
41,870
39,385
42,032
57,048
58,458
78,104
82,071
55,975
45,759
46,834
59,822
77,820
121,722
105,570
128,542
130,236
169,082
149,716
122,69 7
137,711
193,669
190,191
173,331
124,490
120,853
130,519
136,724
177,338
171,133
167,206
162,360
321,450
290,841
291,445
248,12-5
254,020
145,962
69,687
96,018
102,432

Cattle
26,799
37,277
59,867
129,748
130,018
164,870
180,662
226,678
216,701
220,430
251,566
261,723
226,255
228,879
293,092
188,486
249,523
315,433
233,249
212,958
277,406
336,206
297,879
361,705
464,794
465,328
473,966
281,260
274,738
350,037
367,664
254,619
224,177
207,998
252,749
342,191
338,493
349,434
377,072
392,872
426,555
436,954
494,235
452,111
341,668
335,776
381,432
317,745
298,673
330,534
322,824
350,509
394,216
372,151
455,311
688,273
652,547

Annual Reports of 1893, p. 193} 1923, p. 175.

Sheep
19,622
6,415
12,416
11,649
37,465
29,540
18,902
35,577
37,784
67,886
87,569
74,433
88,083
93,522
170,395
245,071
217,370
248,545
233,391
202,728
287,018
316,676
255,375
251,728
277,886
248,035
231,476
90,526
119,768
254,602
212,759
127,184
97,722
65,199
77,476
74,241
83,978
102,900
92,362
110,873
97,198
130,680
118,523
81,522
110,737
96,899
71,822
46,724
97,108
99,858
71,010
65,667
112,209
97,065
161,467
144,939
126,988

Hogs
28,627
16,277
39,076
17,156
113,913
188,700
224,873
453,710
126,729
232,876
314,287
528,627
686,099
770,769
889,909
264,584
609,388
678,874
789,487
520,362
324,735
294,869
420,310
665,471
704,378
715,969
575,846
642,699
605,319
885,462
838,319
573,951
578,067
513,561
406,024
162,394
267,000
412,776
529,078
627,513
817,527
838,890
985,210
689,239
905,444
678,844
954,330
1,016,172
1,019,247
1,118,617
1,037,743
945,775
1,211,780
1,295,680
1,419,765
1,676,487
2,110,684

Year
Horses & Mules
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
30,202
28,675
26,301
25,157
30,867
36,947
44,416
43,794
46,255
44,543
39,544
35,610
39,798
59,222
61,192
65,399
79,030
66,891
49,077
55,931
67,564
81,926
121,202
97,548
117,603
103,772
147,463
119,938
98,425
117,135
171,076
170,480
159,488
114,679
105,539
116,044
123,069
157,955
155,356
151,456
147,205
305,308
275,849
268,692
239,390
223,674
138,211
61,362
88,995
99,026

1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923




Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15

Value of Manuf actures * in Leading Industries St#Louis City and St .Louis Industrial Area For Selected Years

St .Louis Industrial Area*5

St. Louis City

Industries
1880

1890

1900

1909

1919u

1926u

1929u

1939°

Automobiles, incl. bodies & parts, incl.
4
repairs
$ 1,302,283 $ 10,115,181
a
a
$
1
Boots & Shoes, inol. custom work & re88,554,268
pairing
33,970,372
4,926,692
8,741,872
1,634,594
a
$ 21,159,692
Bags, other than paper
27,970,073 $
12,549,369
a
9,202,942
a
a
a
Bread & other bakery products
21,047,650
8,623,641
2,575,350
3,597,392
4,817,756
24,235,836
29,658,283
Boxes, fancy and paper and wood
413,198
13,013,728
2,164,768
231,600
1,797,379
12,254,671
a
Carpentering
11,057,162
a
a
a
3,005,411
10,364,922
a
a
Cars, railroad, street and repairs
1,100,809
a
a
8,736,597
27,993,507
5,641,262
3,217,189
Carriages and wagons
4,033,799
6,328,164
a
1,614,236
a
3,603,735
8,755,697
29,821,949
9,687,421
22,098,217
7,423,501
Clothing, men's
3,425,167
9,630,688
17,415,571
4,584,012
Clothing, women's
4,886,052
22,492,813
3,713,618
483,000
1,717,972
13,432,819
8,358,091
Confeotionery and ice cream
11,296,444
3,848,422
2,997,685
1,158,185
2,462,037
Cooperage
4,096,704
2,592,092
2,279,987
a
1,698,862
1,431,405
1,912,779
a
Coffee & spioe, roasting and grinding
21,956,572
17,741,483
568,000
9,513,595
2,466,392
4,765,564
Drugs and chemicals
15,504,823
a
a
1,166,743
3,523,060
3,027,663
a
Electrical machinery,apparatus & supplies
674,950
2,080,635
14,847,552
a
1,061,440
a
Flouring and grist mill products
3,551,470
12,928,163
10,025,227
a
13,783,178
12,456,000
4,004,062
Food preparations,not otherwise specified
30,840
662,160
1,290,260
15,239,112
14,176,630
3,963,305
4,454,774
foundry & machine shop products
11,628,140
29,942,632
5,952,770
14,590,834
31,309,271
11,945,493
a
Furniture, including upholstering
13,958,300
2,128,410
4,847,046
4,448,054
6,110,965
12,065,823
7,079,204
Iron and steel
5,959,139
3,950,530
1,715,627
3,274,448
a
3,745,668
a
Iron work, architectural and ornamental
67,610
a
2,023,526
1,768,693
a
a
a
Leather goods, incl. leather, tanned.
curried and finished
5,143,110
682,380
a
2,047,630
895,755
a
1,811,253
23,147,250
a
Liquors, malt
16,185,560
11,673,599
20,591,404
a
4,535,630
Lumber, planing mill products, incl. sash,
door and blinds
7,366,976
5,901,425
7,434,254
7,952,207
1,948,606
2,930,435
3,061,178
3,778,120
7,219,458
Masonry, brick and stone and tile
575,700
5,133,589
1,975,294
9,122,952
2,097,156
Paints and varnishes
2,570,860
10,864,510
16,499,330
5,564,021
3,238,317
3,695,678
a
Painting and paperhanging
2,642,667
a
1,255,552
2,841,041
a
a
a
Patent medicines and compounds
6,846,391
12,575,220
a
1,145,090
2,599,010
2,186,416
a
Printing and publishing
46,588,879
30,700,799
32,504,852
3,668,287
8,555,450
9,816,455
17,164,143
Petroleum refining
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
Nonferrous Metal Alloys & products
a
a
a
a
&
a
Saddlery and harness
a
1,495,430
a
1,532,155
a
2,803,961
2,364,858
Stoves & furnaces, incl. ga3 & oil stoves
13,569,872
13,648,375
9,620,354
5,923,388
a
a
a
26,600,956
86,301,064
63,242,193
Slaughtering and meat packing
96,044,220
12,943,376
8,424,064
12,048,114
a
Soap and candles
a
a
a
3,437,735
1,607,541
1,203,406
4,064,188
Tinware, copperware, and sheet-iron ware
a
5,060,190
7,133,527
1,095,959
2,369,540
2,180,434
a
45,947,990
a
Tobacco, chewing, smoking and snuff
24,411,307
a
4,813,769
14,354,165
5,838,094
8,539,408
Wirework, incl. wire rope and cable
7,438,233
1,014,330
3,323,043
371,600
501,235
Total selected industries
•223,623,67$ $619,226,235 $ 414,052,188 $22§,672,6$2
$ 79,367,734 $165,$92,666
Other value of manufactures classified
55,856,585
87,543,882
by industry
66,973,437
42,013,679
13,868,097
21,243,108
41,164,279
Value of manufactures, not classified
431,754,320
521,117,420
by industry
91,004,140
185,500,766
13,722,533
22,000,384
16,016,287
Total all industries
#114,333,375 1229,157,343 $233,629,733
$328,495,313 $871,700,438 $1,022,713,490 $716,683,597
Percent selected industries of all
31.96
75.16
industries
40.49
69,42 .
68.07
71.04
72.44
a
Not reported separately.
b
St. Louis Industrial Area consists of St. Louis City and County, Mo. and Madison and St. Clair Counties, Illinois.
c
After 1909 the large value of manufactures in the unclassified group prevents use of the individual industry figures for comparisons with
of the large unclassified figure into general industry groups is available for 1939 only.
Sourcet Tenth to Fifteenth Census of the United States.

1939"

a
$

46,035,958
12,549,369
32,631,938
16,518,362
a
a
a
31,784,906
22,492,813
12,141,604
2,567,786
17,741,483
39,615,000
49,687,060
25,956,166
21,821,153
43,029,344
14,615,612
75,191,549
a

a
$

a
a

$

6,970,386
2,174,177
27,449,077
a
32,405,432
48,895,259
77,386,538
30,331,300
a
22,620,810
183,129,577
a
9,684,634
a
8,539,408
913,966,704
218,899,276

23,925,581
. 9,202,942
26,989,501
16,497,912
a
a
a
22,757,453
14,974,332
8,978,560
1,843,924
a
31,410,525
46,746,727
9,756,777
18,974,913
8,566,729
7,359,898
49,363,391
a
1,811,253
a

$

10,781,459
4,312,974
8,955,032
a
19,373,137
36,416,361
a
27,803,280
a
14,298,434
137,620,972
a
4,289,834
a
5,838,094
568,849,995
114,910,062

409,087,674
402,835,684
$1,541,953,654 i11,086,595,741
59.27

previous years.

52.35

A breakdown




Appendix BB
Sheet 3.5 of 15
Summation By Industry Groups of Value of Manufacture for 1939 Not Included
In Value of Manufacture Reported For Specific Industries

GRL*OUO
V Wt£S

Industries

IN U •

1
2
3

15
16
17
19
20

Food and kindred products
Tobacco manufactures
Textile mill products and other fibre manufactures
Apparel and other finished products made from
fabrics and similar materials
Furniture and finished lumber products
Paper and allied products
Printing, publishing and allied industries
Chemicals and allied products
Rubber products
Leather and leather products
Stone, clay and glass products
Iron and steel and their products, except
machinery
Nonferrous metals and their products
Electrical machinery
Machinery (except electrical)
Transportation equipment except automobiles
Miscellaneous industries

18
5
10

Automobiles and automobile equipment
Lumber and timber basic products
Products of petroleum and coal

2
10
11
12
18
19

Tobacco manufactures
Products of petroleum and coal
Rubber products
Leather ard leather products
Automobiles and automobile equipment
Transportation equipment except automobiles

4
6
7
8
9
11
12
13
14

Total
Total all industries
a

Not reported separately.
Source: Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940.

Number
of
e3tablishments

1939
— — — — — —
•
St. Louis Industrial Area
Value
Value added
Persons
of
by
employed
products
manufacture

36
7

1,622
1,656

25

2,403

38
18
18
13
58
11
23
28

$

19,069,661
18,285,285

St. Louis City
Number
Value
of
of
establis hments
products

*

7,062,419
5,892,298

53
12

8,979,157

4,665,368

20

8,227,999

1,262
883
1,858
103
4,956
621
1,736
4,380

4,347,362
3,859,182
10,274,094
295,561
41,140,882
4,571,623
10,066,987
21,289,463

1,742,706
2,237,401
4,377,301
222,806
21,157,974
1,436,500
3,738,285
13,836,905

142 >
37
50
25
148
a
a
23

20,473,604
4,277,427
18,828,799
2,000,509
61,669,792
a
a
5,338,360

48
23
43
41
6
44

4,175
2,357
8,948
2,759
739
1,683

15,854,765
27,803,280
46,746,727
13,226,110
2,076,959
5,787,025

9,446,888
5,265,010
25,685,032
8,184,574
1,456,121
3,375,218

95
44
39
69
a
61

29,575,841
16,241,757
33,110,501
19,628,532
a
6,955,585

17
2)
6)

4,781)
4,581j

149,161,561

43,894,092

a
3
a

a
a
a
a
a
a

a
a
a
a
a
a

a
a
a
a
a
a

$

a
a
a
a
a
a

12)
6)
10)
42)
15)
9)

60,506,679
a

a
706,183
a

144,212,752

505

$ 402,835,684

903

$ 431,754,320

2,787

•1,086,595,741

2,341

I 716,683,597




Appendix AA
Cotton Compressed at St. Louis,
1875-1923
Year
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1889
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923

Receipts
(bales)
94,308
159,810
167,927
205,861
237,437
358,124
317,195
259,151
304,300
228,414
203,584
240,183
258,234
256,809
270,848
231,288
309,273
310,344
177,834
168,571
161,219
111,617
109,29 7
120,605
124,906
67,597
92,231
173,713
57,016
57,487
91,923
71,274
112,621
69,593
105,786
64,330
70,158
137,510
77,969
94,005
105,807
68,524
99,158
73,635
49,891
47,192
81,973
49,465
47,163

Shipment s
(bales)
96,571
157,836
168,646
206,537
237,101
351,818
316,537
265,637
301,451
231,484
203,493
231,868
264,110
257,044
274,246
231,266
299,112
274,677
204,734
170,201
171,451
100,838
119,493
103,205
97,219
111,558
66,656
196,376
67,466
52,360
87,539
68,549
121,799
64,032
104,924
24,312
68,159
122,378
75,708
86,082
103,795
55,242
104,568
66,271
54,868
39,832
58,889
59,230
51,768

Stock
(bales)
246
2,220
1,501
825
1,161
7,467
8,225
1,739
4,588
1,518
1,609
9,924
4,140
3,910
512
574
10,735
46,402
19,502
17,899
7,549
17,873
7,677
25,077
46,962
8,803
34,378
11,715
1,265
6,392
10,776
13,501
4,312
9,770
10,632
650
2,649
3,937
6,198
14,121
16,133
19,415
4,005
11,774
11,311
14,157
33,042
13,694
5,600

Sources St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual
Reports of 1878, pp. 61-63; 1883, pp. 109-111; 1893 pp.
117-119; 1894, p. 146; 1903, pp. 125-127, 1913, pp. 93-95;
1923, pp. 51-53.




Appendix AA

Population of St. Louis and Chioago Industrial Distriota, 1840-1940

1840

1850

1860

1870a

1880

1890

1900

1909

1919

687,029
82,417
89,847
119,870
d'w/isy i

772,897
821,960
816,048
100,737
211,593
274,230
106,895
143.830
149,349
136,520
157,775
166,899
, m , m 1,335,155 I,406,SM

1929

1939

St. Louis Industrial District
St. Louis City
St. Louis County®
Madison County
St. Clair County
Total

16,469 77,860 160,773 236,671 350,518
19,510 27,118 29,751 30,605 31,888
14,433 20,441 31,251 44,131 50,126
13,631 20,180 37,694 51,068 61,806
64,043 145,599 259,469 446,388 494,338

451,770
575,238
36,307
50,040
51,535
64,694
66,571
86,685
" 6 0 6 7 m —Tw^sr

St. Louis Metropolitan District

1,293,516 1,367,977

Chicago Industrial District
Lake County, 111.
Cook County
DuPage County
Lake County, Ind.
Total
Chioago City (included in Cook County)

2,634
10,201
3,535
1,468
17,838

14,226 18,257 21,014 21,296
24,235
34,504
55,058
74,285
104,387
121,094
43,385 144,954 349,966 607,524 1,191,922 1,838,735 2,405,233 3,053,017 3,982,123 4,063,342
9,290 14,701 16,685 19,161
22,551
28,196
33,432
42,120
91,998 , 103,480
3,991
9,145 12,339 15,091
23,886
37,892
82,864
159,957
261,310 ' 293,195
m , 6 s r 4(56,604 663,075- 1,562,534 1,939,327 2,576,587 3,329,379 4.439,818 4,561,111
298,977 503,185 1,099,850 1,698,575 2,185,283 2,701,705 3,376,438 3,3$6,808

Chicago Metropolitan District

4,364,755 4,499,126

falsification which ooourred in the St. Louis Census for 1870 makes the reported figures for that year worthless. For the whole
county a population of 351,189 was reported in 1870 compared to 190,524 in 1860 and 382,406 in 1880. A oorrect figure for 1870 would
probably place the population about two-fifths of the way between the 1860 and 1880 figures and the estimated figure of 236,671 for the
city and 30,605 for the rest of the county was based on that assumption. (See Stevens, Walter 3., St. Louis The Fourth City 1764-1909 (1909),
p. 989.)
^Excluding St. Louis City.
Sources U. S. Census of Population except for St. Louis, 1870; see note a.
















Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15
Gross arid Net Receipts of Cotton
at St. Louis, 1871-1923*

Year

Gros s
Receipts
(bales)

Through
Shipments
(bales)

Net
Receipts
(bales )

1871
1872
1873
1874
1875

36,421
59,709
103,741
133,969
244,598

19,715
25,494
24,323
39,679
84,788

16,706
34,215
79,418
94,290
159,810

1876
1877
1878
1879
1880

217,734
248,856
335,799
496,570
398,939

69,258
61,561
117,083
172,286
97,586

148,476
187,295
218,716
324,284
301,353

1881
1882
1883
1884
1885

369,579
456,858
297,122
291,056
472,682

129,060
160,098
80,599
103,312
246,017

240,519
296,760
216,523
187,744
226,665

1886
1887
1888
1889
1890

411,832
520,292
584,572
538,910
706,469

167,698
271,028
323,619
311,823
400,454

244,134
249,264
260,953
227,087
306,015

1891
1892
1893
1894
1895

723,628
474,024
635,421
926,285
565,683

425,737
301,186
462,032
781,694
474,796

297,891
172,838
163,389
144,591
90,887

1896
1897
1898
1899
1900

570,413
899,229
989,959
802,769
973,497

455,516
771,712
814,330
648,695
733,869

114,897
127,517
175,629
154,074
239,628

1901
1902
1903
1904
1905

841,258
742,618
521,881
677,658
551,091

619,578
679,971
465,677
574,115
482,215

221,680
62,647
56,204
103,543
68,876

1906
1907
1908
1909
1910

815,871
481,742
688,018
457,322
533,276

707,791
404,756
554,028
372,256
449,654

108,080
76,986
133,990
85,066
83,622




Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15
Gross and Net Receipts of Cotton
at St. Louis, 1871-1923

Year

Gross
Receipts
(bales)

Through
Shipments
(bales)

1911
1912
1913
1914
1915

668,579
595,428
578,832
749,547
813,963

527,195
514,175
495,287
644,948
747,926

1916
1917
1918
1919
1920

1,042,783
1,201,628
606,635
822,698
847,673

1921
1922
1923

782,997
736,312

726,859
694,648

—

—

959 , 893
1,138,155
555,421
770,666
775,052

Net
Receipts
(bales)
141,384
81,253
83,545
104,599
66,037
82,890
63,473
51,214
52,032
72,621
56,138
41,664

^•Figures for gross and net receipts are for cotton
crop year; for example, figures shown for 1871 are for
crop year 1871-72.
Source; St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual
Reports of 1878, pp. 61-63 5 1883, pp. 109-111, 1893,
ppl 117-119; 1894, p. 146; 1903, pp. 125-127; 1913, pp. 93-95;
1923, pp. 51-53.




Appendix AA

Receipts, Manufactures and Shipments of Flour St. Louis, Mo*, 1851-1925

Year

Receipts
(bbls.)

Manufactures
Shipments
(bbls.)
(bbls.)

Year

Receipts
(bbls.)

Manufactures
Shipments
(bbls.)
(bbls.)

1851
1852
1853
1854
1855

184,715
132,050
201,487
192,945
226,450

408,099
383,184
455,076
503,157
603,353

a
a
a
a
a

1888
1889
1890
1891
1892

887,173
1,168,603
1,229,975
1,353,640
1,455,342

2,016,619
2,066,442
1,872,005
1,748,190
1,623,371

2,682,405
2,859,389
2,880,324
2,767,906
2,313,738

1856
1857
1858
1859
1860

323,446
573,664
687,451
484,715
443,196

678,496
662,548
825,651
663,446
839,165

a
a
a
a
a

1893
1894
1895
1896
1897

1,171,025
1,261,309
1,013,344
1,348,601
1,329,050

1,669,048
1,656,645
1,740,026
1,333,986
1,080,916

2,044,727
2,168,388
2,145,659
1,946,081
1,618,683

1861
1862
1863
1864
1865

484,000
647,419
689,242
815,144
1,161,038

694,110
»
906,860
a
758,422
a
782,560
a
743,281 1,521,465

1898
1899
1900
1901
1902

1,358,088
1,514,315
1,869,070
2,170,548
2,217,685

1,054,875
1,166,439
1,346,059
1,505,234
1,322,530

1,584,112
2,027,631
2,535,206
2,961,563
2,684,451

1866
1867
1868
1869
1870

818,300 1,700,740
1,208,725
844,075
765,298 1,450,475
808,836
895,154 1,499,337
1,310,555 1,068,592 2,172,761
1,491,626 1,351,773 2,690,739

1903
1904
1905
1906
1907

2,340,695
2,355,560
2,529,780
2,404,745
2,855,015

1,112,316
1,102,980
1,285,537
1,010,120
1,189,949

3,127,096
3,306,198
3,472,609
2,677,945
3,201,341

1871
1872
1873
1874
1875

1,428,408
1,250,933
1,296,457
1,683,898
1,300,381

1,507,915
1,494,798
1,420,287
1,573,202
1,484,821

2,676,520
2,447,040
2,506,215
2,981,760
2,480,877

1908
1909
1910
1911
1912

2,763,700
965,832 3,192,790
926,029 3,004,210
2,695,350
2,678,040
969,545 2,888,448
2,683,775 1,055,416 2,842,530
3,032,330 1,030,704 3,079,570

1876
1877
1878
1879
1880

1,071,434
1,157,932
1,305,336
1,607,236
1,703,874

1,441,944
1,517,921
1,916,290
2,142,929
2,077,625

2,217,578
2,295,657
2,670,740
3,045,035
3,292,803

1913
1914
1915
1916
1917

3,266,375
3,514,750
3,952,190
4,490,775
3,893,922

1,036,761
1,579,079
1,678,463
1,750,686
1,619,256

3,890,940
4,309,645
4,905,490
5,288,930
5,412,710

1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887

1,620,996
2,003,424
1,585,670
1,456,153
1,032,506
848,417
1,049,864

1,718,429
1,850,215
1,892,633
1,960,737
1,841,529
1,807,956
1,985,717

2,696,245
3,305,765
2,751,182
3,014,105
2,551,499
2,243,361
2,594,881

1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923

2,965,320
4,284,780
4,120,730
5,266,070
4,476,310
4,930,920

1,398,283
1,798,298
1,441,183
1,505,765
1,518,042
1,758,077

3,951,120
5,320,660
4,794,200
6,013,955
6,080,410
6,234,585

a

Not reported.
Source: St. Louis Merchants' Exchange, Annual Reports of 1874, pp.
49-51; 1903, p. 140; 1923, p. 59.




Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15

Receipts and Shipments of Bran and Mill Feed St. Louis, 1867-1923

Receipts
_
sacks
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871

94,560
72,999
85,317
102,906
120,183

1872
1873
1874
1875
1876

103,385
82,773
194,345
207,219
179,990

1877
1878
1879
1880
1881

220,564
148,844
118,605
123,374
143,753

1882
1883
1884
1885
1886

Shipments
In bulk
(cars)

In
sack3

In bulk
( cars

226,262
232,047
313,585
444,450
457,908

a
a
a
a
a

386,321
471,447
558,696
578,062
561,458

a
a
a
a
a

336
463
447
644

680,565
499,481
539,443
602,103
560,115

a
1,058
1,185
1,936
1,228

244,814
232,665
198,700
175,662
110,763

1,121
1,032
857
847
366

686,498
711,571
800,881
880,395
767,856

1,934
1,361
1,699
908
335

1887
1888
1889
1890
1891

102,548
171,145
145,010
149,432
220,663

302
560
940
905
941

622,650
814,474
891,539
866,521
746,646

226
558
820
736
903

1892
1893
1894
1895
1896

383,152
373,842
390,111
434,863
537,933

842
633
480
267
492

765
743,093
1,011
762,483
See note
340
707,787
1,000,575
446

1897
1898
1899
1900
1901

306,795
676,911
1,035,842
848,080
740,083

464
582
469
400
438

651,309
579,690
936,685
1,073,887
841,665

662
809
1,260
808
1,552

1902
1903
1904
1905
1906

1,250,260
1,823,740
1,568,410
1,009,150
907,170

358
486
669
1,065
909

1,206,460
1,981,593
1,874,070
1,122,145
1,292,940

821
690
1,312
1,096
1,351

-

-

mm

-

-

mm

Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15

Receipts and Shipments of Bran and Mill Feed St. Louis, 1867-1923

Receipts
Year

.

Shipments

In
sacks

In tulk
(cars)

In
sacks

In bulk
(cars)

1907
1908
1909
1910
1911

1,497,755
1,450,220
1,253,310
1,394,845
972,830

957
564
761
1,001
1,262

1,947,380
2,373,980
2,842,870
3,148,950
3,104,975

4,424
4,077
3,292
3,714
6,297

1912
1913
1914
1915
1916

1,146,570
1,134,990
826,070
1,808,440
1,443,240

1,720
872
293
496
983

3,224,935
5,227,465
1,489,545
1,523,750
1,005,230

7,819
4,365
259
48
17

1917
1918
1919
1920
1921

1,032,690
668,780
1,313,400
1,276,970
1,186,790

630

982,270
1,023,290
2,106,520
1,548,075
1,487,530

786

1922
1923

1,163,330
924,890

1,337,750
1,513,770

mm

a

-

-

-

-

-

mm

Not reported.

Note: Table at p. 132 in 1913 report is in error.
Figures reported for shipments for 1887 are actually for 1886,
and figures for each year up to and including 1894 are for the
preceding year, therefore no figure is reported for 1894.
Sources St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of
1867 (186B) p. 82; 1868 (1869) p. 73; 1883 (1884) p. 106; 1893
(1894) p. 159; 1913 (1914) p. 132; 1923 (1924) p. 67 #




Appendix AA

Receipts and Shipments of Hay,
St* Louis, 1867-1923

Year

Receipt

Shipments

Year

Receipts

Shipments

Tons (contd)

Bales
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871

178,992
147,455
181,149
177,538
186,160

128,513
92,608
56,124
129,142
76,499

1895
1896
1897
1898
1899

195,582
230,352
178,516
160,350
175,820

69,046
107,980
64,067
46,488
64,333

1872
1873
1874
1875
1876

275,079
272,761
315,429
386,416
299,770

157,653
136,314
108,986
168,579
111,991

1900
1901
1902
1903
1904

234,256
251,132
213,224
298,246
269,560

120,777
117,557
89,028
114,441
119,984

1877
1878
1879
1880

322,344
339,981
461,979
676,268

134,793
178,674
165,801
266,739

1905
1906
1907
1908
1909

246,945
242,980
290,645
238,605
188,565

90,130
101,336
149,042
109,255
66,015

1910
1911
1912
1913
1914

242,481
253,372
246,443
250,525
291,780

87,455
126 , 890
132,125
123,560
177,030

1915
1916
1917
1918
1919

247,825
192,270
238,946
216,926
205,108

130,715
79,945
147,070
159,060
95,395

1920
1921
1922
1923

260,542
135,344
125,195
141,296

111,355
47,705
48,385
62,945

Tons
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885

98,091
99,099
82,540
78,798
97,975

34,390
32,389
22,438
25,273
38,826

1886
1887
1888
1889
1890

85,078
85,394
107,884
116,346
114,092

30,006
23,861
34,665
53,522
40,247

1891
1892
1893
1894

141,398
131,148
141,238
159,969

38,253
32,078
30,095
41,238

Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of
1883, p. 132; 1893, p. 213; 1903, p. 234; 1923, p. 176.




Appendix AA

Shipments of Bulk Grain by River
From St. Louis to New Orleans, 1874-1893

Corn
(Bu.)

Rye
(Bu.)

Oats
(Bu.)

Total
(Bu.)

10,000

1,423,046

Year

TNheat
(Bu.)

1874

365,252

1,047,794

-

1675

135,961

172,617

-

-

308,578

1876

37,142

1,737,237

mm

-

1,774,379

-

4,101,353

1877

351,453

3,578,057

171,843

1878

1,876,639

2,857,056

609,041

108,867

5,451,603

1879

2,390,897

3,585,589

157,424

30,928

6,164,838

1880

5,913,272

9,804,392

45,000

-

15,762,664

*

1881

4,197,981

8,640,720

22,423

132,823

12,993,947

1882

5,637,391

2,529,712

15,994

150,320

8,333,417

1883

1,435,043

9,029,509

205,430

389,826

11,059,508

1884

1,318,688

4,496,785

344,864

487,221

6,647,558

1885

50,000

8,180,039

36,093

401,787

8,667,919

1886

743,439

7,501,730

-

598,755

8,834,924

1887

3,973,737

7,365,340

-

217,722

11,556,799

1888

1,247,952

5,844,042

-

160,584

7,252,578

1889

1,651,950

12,398,955

89,707

14,158,046

1890

1,409,440

8,717,849

89,960

10,217,244

1891

6,940,215

1,482,731

1892

5,149,708

3,228,645

-

36,587

8,414,940

1893

3,710,360

3,293,808

-

75,430

7,079,598

17,432
-

45,600

-

8,468,546

Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Report of
1893, p. 113.




Appendix AA

Receipts and Shipments of Wool,
St. Louis, 1867-1913

Year

Receipts

Shipments

Year

Packages

Receipts

Shipments

Pounds

1867
1868
186S
1870

12,040
17,756
14,905
13,486

11,928
18,530
20,738
17,882

1890
1891
1892
1893

20,540,503
21,975,954
25,850,690
15,024,436

23,226,444
21,464,552
27,450,379
15,726,165

1871
1872
1873
1874

23,157
23,206
17,806
24,947

16,235
16,686
17,915
23,138

1894
1895
1896
1897

24,861,455
21,593,780
15,139,840
30,865,410

24,430,971
20,526,100
.15,939,579
34,303,700

1898
1899
1900
1901
1902

23,710,715
28,491, 625
17,000,790
25,877,110
26,378,080

21,266,999
32,517,076
15,057,290
27,311,375
30,072,350

1903
1904
1905
1906
1907

18,766,250
18, 751,770
24,296,130
15, 775,330
14, 712,560

21,031,610
27,540,775
22,887,270
17,749,420
17,097,750

1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913

23,123,340
22, 649,110
21,044,440
26, 773,770
23,390,150
14,671,660

27,829,200
30,023,350
20,548,250
33,039,000
39,819,200
18,647,200

*

Pounds
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879

4,249,307
6,025,108
15,521,975
16,469,816
20,786,742

3, 756,518
5, 887,979
17,094,428
16,161,725
19, 619,258

1880
1881
1882
1883
1884

12,387,089
11,198,272
16,019,836
18,868,729
12,391,806

10,492,524
9,817,534
14, 845,897
20,903,974
17,665,858

1885
1886
1887
1888
1889

21,193,031
18,563,614
17,347,186
19,626,629
21,018,920

25,145,815
17,825,630
17,392,858
21,463,99 8
18,239,236

Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of
1883* p. 141, 1893, p. 212; 1903, p. 233, 1913, p. 235.




Appendix AA

St. Louis Receipts and Shipments
of Lead, 1867-1923

Rece ipts

Shipments

Number of
Number of
80 lb. pigs • 80 lb. pigs

Receipts

Shipments

Number of
80 lb. pigs

Number of
80 lb. pigs

1867
1868
1869
1870
1871

144,555
185,823
228,303
237,039
229,961

18,674
40,358
57,281
62,674
50,660

1896
1897
1898
1899
1900

1,946,139
2,280,548
2,183,012
1,611,112
1,577,443

1,406,327
1,389,436
1,466,905
1,105,131
1,072,992

1872
1873
1874
1875
1876

285,769
356,037
479,448
579,202
665,557

62,862
216,040
218,538
320,668
404,300

1901
1902
1903
1904
1905

1,800,235
2,007,725
2,407,605
2,373,540
2,L37,935

1,243,956
1,354,119
1,979,554
1,387,042
1,538,780

1877
1878
1879
1880
1881

790,028
764,357
817,594
764,887
925,406

473,281
523,964
408,123
495,036
625,266

1906
1907
1908
1909
1910

2,048,890
1,985,875
1,998,370
2,357,300
2,639,740

1,426,750
1,484,945
1,495,080
1,524,920
1,659,130

1882
1883
1884
1885
1886

1,197,395
1,114,235
1,044,012
1,110,738
1,138,854

687,219
552,330
625,336
637,710
561,544

1911
1912
1913
1914
1915

2,399,190
2,472,440
1,314,250
3,611,510
3,801,190

1,538,950
1,748,355
2,100,530
2,231,800
2,283,830

1887
1888
1889
1890
1891

1,442,054
1,853,781
2,018,483
1,756,850
1,739,977

766,807
1 ,293,919
1 ,433,087
1 ,057,486
982,477

1916
1917
1918
1919
1920

3,520,750
4,893,524
2,158,910
1,726,790
2,645,71Q

1,874,490
2,742,020
2,896,760
1,913,880
1,751,475

1,526,484
1,348,544
1,436,229
1,500,923

1 ,070,538
968,411
1 ,084,280
956,572

1921
1922
1923

2,517,440
4,057,030
2,442,070

.

«

1892
1893
1894
1895

1,167,830
2,230,400
1,751,110

Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of 1893,
p. 210; 1913, p. 232; 1923, p. 179.







Appendix AA

Tobacco Manufactured First Missouri Internal
Revenue Collection District
1873-1913
Year
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877

Pounds
5,441,872ft
4,794,985a
6,324,408a
4,928,147a
5,484,431

Year

Poland s

1894
1895
1896
1897
1898

57,097,445
57,447,310
53,134,513
62,588,229
64,398,621

1878
1879
1880
1881
1882

5,990,801
8,670,466
12,889,784
17,234,869
17,170,190

1899
1900
1901
1902
1903

66,873,197
79,294,959
82,010,863
82,593,541
80,875,428

1883
1884
1885
1886
1887

23,835,729
22,631,104
28,517,401
32,448,936
40,284,675

1904
1905
1906
1907
1908

65,832,529
65,001,781
71,715,288
65,984,081
72,759,588

1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
18?3

40,009,303
44,964,667
51,792,102
50,384,439
57,677,351
50,465,647

1909
1910
1911
1912
1913

74,565,081
74,871,724
74,852,140
71,381,336
73,089,871

a

Fiscal year - balance of data for
calendar year.
Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange,
Annual Reports of 1883, p. 128; 1893, p. 198;
1903, p. 222; 1913, p. 230.

Appendix AA
Receipts and Shipments of Hog Products - St* Louis 1867-1913

Lard
Pork
(bbls.)
(lbs.)
7,229,670 138,226
5,941,650 130,268
7,778,410 120,002
6,215,150 115,236
10,093,460 131,732
11,288,890 114,329
8,981,820 105,876
6,877,560
90,343

Shipments
Hams and
Meats
(lbs.)
70,095,130
58,229,270
75,755,450
77,501,130
123,665,060
147,141,960
184,392,770
133,486,380

Lard
(lbs.)
14,318,210
12,945,490
13,322,900
15,507,840
30,750,470
33,943,860
37,156,810
27,112,270

1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874

Pork
(bbls.)
92,071
85,127
78,236
77,398
88,442
60,207
57,476
55,453

Receipts
Hams and
Meats
(lbs.)
47,623,450
46,753,360
47,225,140
44,494,770
57,804,360
63,434,860
50*071,760
52,104,380

1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882

46,547
45,632
45,482
52,200
32,113
13,658
17,692
78,502

51,556,146
50,290,716
48,203,972
58,611,064
92,983,380
77,376,418
77,736,968
92,217,813

6,732,320
6,067,325
7,087,001
7,019,741
8,415,176
8,248,208
16,526,606
18,480,610

95,503
86,141
108,768
112,375
89,385
79,416
71,826
100,139

105,809,598
106,803,076
119,955,382
125,602,088
159,398,870
146,362,997
139,012,260
140,785,135

24,145,176
29,292,879
34,725,726
40,452,505
38,925,903
38,004,829
43,449,768
39,829,146

1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890

9,656
9,050
6,632
6,667
5,275
6,431
2,679
5,528

119,365,201
78,946,821
81,454,040
67,853,334
94,579,080
133,588,847
189,601,764
269,769,823

9,975,552
10,742,561
8,906,586
11,924,131
18,986,881
15,187,970
24,869,84a
32,463,302

75,239
57,194
66,316
46,816
38,281
24,901
29,447
40,989

163,150,959
132,563,029
128,709,562
117,302,729
143,934,139
163,352,336
228,336,860
294,392,724

43,740,073
50,445,090
47,137,038
48,710,130
69,406,458
78,154,931
80,878,803
77,575,403

1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898

3,658
10,220
3,516
36,640
2,965
4,235
4,175
10,111

254,647,388
237,703,808
185,886,620
201,513,000
187,696,200
171,969,400
307,193,900
228,626,300

37,417,835
24,696,352
23,436,285
27,878,000
26,939,100
23,707,600
67,222,900
57,577,100

26,521
20,369
10,683
15,668
15,186
17,492
10,176
17,718

273,174,494
282,827,819
211,618,018
252,425,847
241,814,093
212,163,700
230,914,601
212,028,070

80,382,032
82,713,571
71,675,953
90,088,732
94,731,066
84,875,547
98,828,778
90,175,130

1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906

13,343
11,380
6,028
4,970
3,055
6,050
3,945
4,073

269,519,100
303,847,500
336,635,900
248,632,500
180,622,600
237,891,300
321,003,400
238,236,900

52,792,420
47,994,410
55,573,380
43,195,000
26,797,590
50,813,200
116,341,000
45,577,700

12,880
14,011
10»526
7,836
4,282
4,930
6,073
4,623

275,971,730
272,274,710
295,528,405
295,044,005
313,386,590
396,259,745
481,290,932
323,882,155

106,906,215
115,009,655
98,655,501
77,135,565
79,065,870
104,618,920
127,133,300
91,332,360

199,075,600
206,396,300
125,732,000
154,069,900
154,778,500
120,545,600
117,632,380

13,906,100
12,891,600
9,076,700
9,858,100
742,600
10,942,100
32,712,300

5,571
1,620
2,370
19,190
19,000

337,760,550
337,839,100
330,314,100
349,283,100
440,536,000
366,931,620
15,296,110

68,966,860
85,982,040
80,073,200
61,000,050
84,886,400
85,032,250
87,674,910

Year
IvOiA

1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913

-

100
870
-

Sources

http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/
1903, p. 206
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

-

St# Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of 1893, p# 175;
J 1913, p. 211*




Appendix AA

Hogs Packed in the West and at St. Louis
and East St. Louis, 1878-1912

Year

Total packed
in
West

Total packed in
St.Louis and
East St.Louis

1878-1879
1879-1880
1880-1881
1881-1882
1882-1883

10,858,792
11,001,699
12,243,354
10,551,449
9,342,999

771,261
927,793
884,159
556,379
532,180

1883-1884
1884-1885
1885-1886
1886-1887
1887-1888

9,183,100
10,519,108
11,263,567
12,083,012
11,532,707

607,122
711,901
613,134
721,914
683,381

1888-1889
1889-1890
1890-1891
1891-1892
1892-1893

10,798,9 74
13,545,303
17,713,134
14,457,614
12,390,630

682,457
739,602
648,100
664,188
530,634

1893-1894
1894-1895
1895-1896
1896-1897
1897-1898

11,605,006
16,003,645
15,010,635
16,928,978
20,201,260

578,873
869,458
837,377
1,089,533
1,238,810

1898-1899
1899-1900
1900-1901
1901-1902
1902-1903

23,651,695
22,200,821
23,600,674
25,411,676
20,605,571

1,580,286
1,507,951
1,566,550
1,725,407
1,262,358

1903-1904
1904-1905
1905-1906
1906-1907
1907-1908

22,375,686
23,918,423
25,574,760
25,430,555
27,981,997

1,579,744
1,908,592
1,777,657
1,765,592
1,853,279

1908-1909
1909-1910
1910-1911
1911-1912
1912-1913

28,996,635
24,162,295
21,755,566
29,918,498
25,583,834

2,244,861
1,978,860
1,896,076
2,791,388
2,102,329

Source: St. Louis Merchants* Exchange,
Annual Reports of 1878, p. 665 1883, p. 117,
1893, p. 188; 1903, p. 209; 1913, pp. 211-214.

Appendix AA

Total Value of Manufactures By Decades 1880-19.40 For
The St. Louis Industrial Area With a Breakdown
By Component Areas

Year

St. Louis
City,
Mo.

St. Louis
County,
Mo.

St. Clair
County,
111,

Total
St. Louis
Industrial
Area

Madison
County,

111.

114,333,375 $

567,722 | 17,319,819 $

1890

229,157,343

268,124

1900

233,629,733

1,441,463

1910

328,495,313

1920

871,700,438

26,688,812

281,455,508

178,994,722

1,358,839,480

1930

1,022,713,490

45,442,197

214,992,985

258,804,982

1,541,953,654

1940

716,683,597

45,782,637

169,764,260

154,365,247

1,086,595,741

1880




|

a

7^298,568 $

139,519,484

17,361,219

6,512,177

253,298,863

41,965,632

18,562,580

295,599,408

a

a

a

a

Not reported.
Source; Census of the United States-

Appendix AA
Wheat, Corn, and Oats—Receipts at Primary Markets,
By Crop Years: 1933 to 1943
(All Figures in Millions of Bushels)
Total
Mil- MinYear
12
begin- mar- Chi- wau- neap- Duning
kets cago kee^ olis luth

KanSt. sas
Louis City

Pe- Qmoria aha

IndiaSt.
nop- Sioux Jo- Wicholis City seph ita

Wheat
July 1:
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938

200.2
157.5
232.1
218.2
330.0
384.3

13.7
22.9
22.6
24.1
39.4
29.4

3.0
3.7
4.1
3.6
8.5
3.9

1939
1940
1941
1942
1943

339.9
356.0
373.0
513.5
707.8

26.4
28.3
19.9
30.0
70.6

4.5
4.6
1.2
1.8
8.9

49.4
37.9
67.4
38.3
53.2
84.8

37.6
17.0
20.1
11.1
33.1
57.6

105.3 58.5
103.1 42.9
140.4 70.3
182.8 70.9
214.8 110.5

17.8 38.9
14.8 28.2
16.4 53.8
16.3 65.0
25.2 102.4
23.3 110.5

1.4
1.5
1.4
2.4
2.2
2.6

24.6 65.4 2.3
25.5 90.0 3.0
14.7 66.6 3.6
45.3 98.1 8.9
79.0 110.1 17.6

4.2
4.7
4.7
3.9
3.8
3.7

1.5 5.6
1.2 4.2
2.2 6.5
1.7 7.7
2.4 12.9
3.1 11.6

13.9
10.7
17.9
24.0
24.2
29.2

15.4 5.6
16.8 5.4
17.8 5.2
22.8 9.8
34.5 17.5

2.4 8.9
2.6 9.2
5.4 7.7
7.2 12.2
7.1 15.1

20.5
24.6
20.1
2?.8
22.0

13.3
10.7
15.1
19.9
22.5
24.6

Com
Oct. Is
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938

217.2 70.2 12.7
104.6 26.2 5.2
194.2 60.3 6.6
131.8 54.2 3.5
322.1 122.1 10.6
231.9 94.1 8.7

19.5
4.0
11.6
4.7
30.6
19.2

1939
1940
1941
1942
1943

238.0 94.4 10.9
257.9 103.5 10.6
307.5 97.0 11.1
317.7 104.2 9.7
253.1 87.2 8.1

20.4
18.8
20.5
13.3
9.7

2.8
0.4
29.4
14.1

14.8
10.6
19.2
17.4
36.4
13.6

22.9
20.6
19.4
8.7
14.0
11.8

16.8
13.2
20.7
14.6
27.5
22.9

20.2
5.9
18.7
10.8
18.2
16.4

17.8
13.4
24.1
12.1
20.4
21.2

3.9 10.5
1.8 3.4
4.8 5.7
3.2 2.0
6.9 5.7
5.5 4.2

2.1
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.2

12.8
18.8
18.4
5.7
0.3

14.3
12.1
22.4
31.8
30.5

13.3
12.0
29.0
32.7
30.0

20.6
33.0
43.4
39.0
29.9

22.4
13.0
24.3
35.5
28.9

18.8
25.1
25.0
20.7
14.5

4.9 5.2
5.6 5.2
9.3 7.0
14.4 10.6
4.0 10.0

0.1

5.8
mm

-

MB

-

0.1

Oats
July Is
1933
77.0
1934
40.6
1935
113.1
68.0
1936
1937
96.4
1938
92.6
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943

78.1
61.4
91.9
117.5
134.7

19.5
10.8
24.5
17.6
27.3
27.5

5.3
2.2
1.9
0.6
1.6
1.0

16.6
7.7
32.8
15.0
22.7
20.2

9.2
1.7
17.1
1.3
12.6
15.0

6.2
5.1
7.4
8.0
5.0
4.2

2.2
1.9
4.8
2.5
3.3
3.4

4.1
1.0
3.2
2.2
4.4
2.9

1.8
2.6
8.7
8.2
5.3
5.1

7.7
3.3
4.9
5.6
9.3
7.2

0.5
0.8
1.6
2.2
1.1
1.3

3.8
3.3
6.1
4.7
3.7
4.8

0.2
0.2
0.1
0.1

17.3
17.7
22.4
19.0
17.8

0.7
0.4
0.9
0.2
0.4

27.0
22.0
37.1
53.2
52.1

12.3
3.5
2.1
3.3
15.7

.4.0
2.8
3.5
7.5
10.4

1.4
1.5
3.8
6.8
7.0

3.8
2.4
2.3
2.6
3.5

3.3
1.1
4.8
8.9
8.9

3.5
5.2
6.7
4.4
4.3

1.7
1.2
2.2
5.9
8.5

3.2
3.5
6.2
5.8
5.8

0*1

Source: Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics*
Compiled from Chicago Daily Trade Bulletin through May 1942; Chicago Journal
of Commerce beginning June 1942* (Reported in Statistical Abstract 1944-45,
p. 719•)



mm

-

mm

0.2




Appendix AA
Building Permits Issued - St* Louis,
1875-1913

Year
_____
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879

BFIc¥~arid
Stone
Buiifliftgs
1,774
1,361
1,677
1,318
1,430

1880
1881
1882
1883
1884

1,507
1,646
1,881
1,989

1885
1886
1887
1888
1889

~
Frame
Buildings
198
464
438
369
534

Cost
$ 5,662,930
3,496,582
3,229,726
2,579,772
3,821,650

715
520
620

1,854
1,966
2,361
2,401
2,609

3,790,650
4,448,552
5,010,554
7,123,878
7,316,685

2,160
1,733
1,842
2,145
2,453

510
491
648
841
1,091

2,670
2,224
2,490
2,986
3,544

7,376,519
7,030,819
8,162,914
8,029,501
9,765,700

1890
18S1
1892
1893
1894

2,665
2,976
3,496
2,748
2,977

1,329
1,459
1,286
1,089
876

3,994
4,435
4,782
3,837
3,853

13,652,700
13,259,950
16,976,978
12,857,667
11,844,700

1895
1886
1897
1898
1899

2,862
2,343
2,549
1,861
1,539

780
686
771
796
961

3,642
3,029
3,320
2,657
2,500

14,381,060
10,034,908
9,471,640
7,833,889
8,249,565

1900
1901
1902
1903
1904

1,330
1,898
2,266
2,177
2,654

1,183
1,824
2,236
2,625
3,306

2,513
3,722
4,502
4,802
5,960

5,916,984
1$,207,991
12,854,035
14,544,430
14,075,794

1905
1906
1907
1908
1909

3,971
4,142
3,942
4,270
4,396

4,314
4,846
4,612
4,849
4,893

8,285
8,988
8,553
9,119
9,279

23,434,734
29,938,693
21,893,167
21,190,369
23,733,272

1910
1911 '
1912
1913

4,336
5,871
5,948
5,412

5,083
2,281
2,645
2,890

9,419
8,152
8,593
8,302

19,600,063
18,607,255
20,675,804
15,340,012

-

347

Total
Buildings
1,972
1,825
2,115
1,687
1,964

-

Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of
1878, p. 18; 1870, p. 25; 1883, p. 18; 1893, p. 53; 1913,
p. 67.

Appendix AA

Trend of Receipts and Shipments by Rail and River,
St. Louis, 1883-1923
(1,000 tons)

Receipts Via:
Upper Mississippi River
Lower Mississippi River
Illinois River
Missouri River
Ohio River
Cumberland and Tennessee
Red, Ouachita, Arkansas & White
Lumber and Logs by raft

1883

1893

126
202
94
34
155
18

112
216
51
8
33
53

33
160
12
1
112
18

-

-

1913

1903

28
11
6
5
152
9

1923
22
111
11
-

1

-

-

<m

126

5

-

-

Total River
Total Railways

629
6,941

599
10,408

341
21,580

211
32,222

145
53,392

Grand Total

7,570

11,007

21,921

32,433

52,537

1893

1903

1913

1923

Shipments Via:

1883
60
535
5
19
56
a
2

54
343
6
13

Total River
Total Railways

677
3,468

437
5,554

212
12,971

48
22,129

270
35,423

Grand Total

4,145

5,991

13,183

22,177

35,693

Upper Mississippi River
Lower Mississippi River
Illinois River
Missouri River
Ohio River
Cumberland and Tennessee
Red, Ouachita, Arkansas & White

45
146
9
2

9
20
7
7

9
254
4
-

-

-

-

3

21

10

5

-

-

-

-

-

a

Less than 1,000 tons

Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange, Annual Reports of 1883, p. 40;
1893, pp. 87-102-103; 1903; 1913, pp. 7.8-79; 1923, pp. 44-45.







Appendix AA

Business of St. Louis Bridges
and Ferries, 1885-1923

Year
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888

Tons
West to East
1,762,824
mm

Tons
East to West
4,118,052
-

1,650,725
1,628,530
1,729,481
2,104,140

3,626,586
4,068,165
4,474,531
4,226,761

1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894

2,144,524
2,735,595
3,007,359
2,942,386
2,818,669
2,690,222

4,481,842
4,897,358
5,820,766
5,289,810
5,291,175
4,873,742

1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900

2,825,077
2,984,450
3,643,187
4,159,809
4,814,136
5,425,044

5,627,882
6,096,966
5,446,074
5,984,533
6,659,621
6,415,096

1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906

5,377,208
5,630,756
5,368,462
5,526,745
6,508,884
7,324,424

7,933,560
8,943,159
9,538,096
9,541,764
9,653,892
10,929,224

1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912

7,241,198
5,808,332
6,019,684
6,263,285
6,540,934
7,676,973

13,063,128
10,616,601
11,908,361
13,410,941
13,103,072
14,776,329

1913
1914
1915
1916
191-7
1918

7,896,939
7,667,189
8,065,252
10,107,075
10,595,287
11,585,214

14,257,864
12,731,914
12,306,019
15,470,785
15,625,602
15,006,598

1919
1920
1921
1922
1923

10,286,264
11,093,830
9,408,925
9,992,069
12,261,304

13,857,375
15,462,712
11,326,964
11,804,368
14,134,316

Source: St. Louis Merchants1 Exchange,
Annual Reports of 1883, p. 42; 1893, p. 101;
1903, p. 96; 1913, p. 77; 1923, p. 43.

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~
Hoffman, Albert von, Publisher. All About St. Louis. 1915.
Hogan, John. Thoughts About the CIty of St. Louis; Her Commerce and
Manufactures, Railroads, ojj£7 iH^Ti
Holsen, James N. Economic Survey of Missouri. 1927.
Hoover, E. M. Location Theory and tho Shoe and Leather Industries. 1937Horton, Louis Y. Analysis of the St. Louis Trade Territory.
Washington University. 1935.
How, L. James B. Eads. 1900.



Thesis (M.S*)

Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15
Hubbart, H. C. The Older Middle West, 3.6^0-1860. 1936.
Hulbert, A. B.

The Ohio River, A Course of Empire. 1906.

Hyde, William and Conard, Howard Louis, eds. Encyclopedia of the History
of St. Louis, h vols. 1899.
Industrial Club of St. Louis.
St. Louis. 1927.

Industrial Bureau.

Industrial Report on

Industrial Club of St. Louis. Report of the Industrial Bureau. 1928.
The International Chamber of'Commerce and Mississippi Valley Society of
I.ondon. Project for Examining and. Reporting Upon the Resources
of the Mississippi Valley. 1875. "
Jacobstein M.

Tobacco Industry in the United States. I907.

Jennings, Dorothy. Railroad Development in Missouri Before the Civil War.
Thesis (A.M.) - Washington University. 1930.
Jennings5 W. J. St. Loir's and Its Lumber Trade. 1870.
Juehne, Charles. Album of St. Louis. 1875.
Kargau, Ernst D. Mercantile, Industrial and Professional St. Louis.
Kargau, Ernst D.

1902.

St. Louis in Fruheren Jahren. 1893-

Keir, Malcolm. Manufacturing Industries In America. 1920.
Kelsoe, William A. St. Louis Reference Record, a Newspaper Man's Motionpicture of the Clty~When We Got Our First Bridge / and of Many
Later Happenings of Local Note. 1928.
"
Keexile, Charles.

The St. Louis Directory.

Kingsford> William.

18^0-^1.

Impressions of the West and South. 1858.

Ehapp, G. P.

City Worth Seeing. 1916.

Knapp, G. P.

Story of St. Louis. 1917,

Kuhlmann, C. B. The Development of the Flour-Milling Industry in the United
States. 1929 .
Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Association. Minutes of the Deep Waterway
Convention Held Under Auspices Business Men's League of St.
Louis, November 15-1^19057^1906.
Land, John E. St.. Louis, Her Trade, Commerce and Industries, Manufacturing
Advantages, Business and Transportation Facilities, Together With
Sketches of the St. Louis Principal Business Houses and Manufacturing Concerns in the- Mound CJ~W. lHBl"

Lange, Dona* A History of St. Louis, 1931.



Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15
Lange, Dona.

St. Louis; Child of the River - Parent of the West. 1939-

League of American Municipalities. Boole of American Municipal 111 es, In
Reference to What is in Our Cities; an Authentic Summary of
Civic Progress and. Achievements . 1910.
Leonard, John W. Industries of St. Louis; Hor Relations as a Center of
Trade,, Manufacturing Establishments and Business Houses. 188?.
Lethem, John. IL.storlcal and Doscriptive Review of St. Louis; Her
Enterprising Business Houses and Progressive Men. 189V. '
Lindhurst, James. History of the Browing Industry in St. Louis, l80^-l860.
Thesis ( a . m t t - Washington University. 1939Lionbergcr, 1. II. The Annals of St. Louis and 0 Brief Account of Its
Foundation and ProgressT*i76^-i928. ~1929.
Lippincott, Isaac. A Century and a Half of the Fur Trade at St. Louis.
1916.
Lippincott, Isaac. Internal Trade ex" the United States, 1700-1860. In
Washington University Studies. I9I0"] TvJ part
no. 1.
Logan, Charles Thomas.

Central-Continental Metropolis. 1897.

Lucas Ship Enterprise.

St. Louis a Seaport. 1888.

McCune, Gill. A Reading Journey to St. Louis. 1921.
Mackay, Charles. Life and Liberty in America. 1859Maguiro, John. Essay Written for the S*. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical
Association, on the Advantages and Adaptability of St. Louis as
a. Manufacturing Clty_. 18&7 .
Mangold, George Benjamin.

The Challenge of St. Louis. 1917.

Marshall, Willis W. Geography of the Early Port of St. Louis.
(M.S.) - Washington University. 1932.

Thesis

Chambers & Knapp, publishers. Memorial of the Citizens of St. Louis,
Missouri to the Congress of the United States,, Praying an .
Appropriation for Removing the Obstruction to the Navigation of
the Western Elvers, for the Improvement of the St. Louis Harbor,
and for Other Purposes.
.
~
Mercantile Commerce Bank end Trust Company, St. Louis. St. Louis, the
Coming Steel, Iron and Mo-trl Center, and Why. l$)2h?
Mercantile Trust Co., St. Lou: s. F.O.B. St. Louis Means a Shorter Haul.
1923?.
Merrick, G. B. and Tibbals, W. E. Genesis of Steamboating on Western Rivers;
With a Register of Officers on the Urvber Mississippi, 182V1870.
Xfl\



Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15

©

Minior, John P., Jr. St. Louis as an Outfitting Center In 18^9*
(A.M.) - University of Iowa. 1937.

Thesis

Mississippi Elver Improvement Convention. Proceedings of the Mississippi
Elver Improvement Convention, held in St. Louis, February
12 and 15, lggfT" 186?.
Mississippi Elver Improvement Convention. Official Report of the Proceedings of the Mississlppl River Improvement Convention Held in
St. Louis, Missouri,'on October 26-2% 1881. 1 M u
Missouri. Agriculture, State Board of. Annual Report. 1866-192^. After
192^ is Missouri Yearbook of Agriculture.
Missouri. Agriculture, State Board of Highway Department. Road Bulletin
no. 1 E f f e c t of Country Roads. In Missouri. Agriculture,
State Board of. Monthly Bulletin. X, no. 5. May, 1912.
Missouri Geological Survey. Preliminary Report on the Iron Ores and Coal
Fields from Field Work of 1872? Io73.
Missouri Historical Society. Missouri Historical Review.

1906.

Missouri Histoi oal Society. Missouri Historical Society Collections.
6 vols. i860.
Missouri Historical Society. Glimpses of the Past. 10 vols. 1933-19^3.
Missouri.

Immigration, State Board of. Report, first for 1865-1866.

1867.

Missouri Pacific Lines Industrial Department. Industrial Sites Available
in St. Lou:' s; Analysis of St. Louis Industrial Districts.
Missouri. Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners. Annual Report.
Missouri. State Chamber of Commerce.

1879-1912.

The Story of Missouri. 19bk,

Monette, John W. History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of
the Mississippi Until the Year I M o T 2 vols. 184(3.
Morton, Stratford Lee.

In the Days of the Covered Wagon in St. Louis.

1923 •

National and International Good Roads Convention. Official Program
National and International Good Roads Convention.' 190^ •
National Cattle Growers' Convention. Proceedings of the First National
Convention of Cattle Growers of the United States, Held in
St. Louis, "Mo./November 17 to 22,~684. lBEfc.
National Good Roads Convention. Proceedings of the National Good Roads
Convention Held at St. Louis, Mo., .April 27-29; 1903» 1903.
National Railroad Convention. Proceedings of the National Railroad Convention Which Assembled In the City of St. Loul3", October, I8U9.
1850.
~~




Appendix BB
Sheet3.5of 15
National Railroad Convention. Proceedings of the National Railroad Convention Held at St, Louis, iIoverabeFT3 and 2b, >875, in Regard
to the Construction of a Southern Trans-Continental Railway
Line From the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific Ocean. 1875•
Nicarague Canal Convention. Proceedings of the Nicaragua Canal Convention
Held at St. Louis, June 2-17 1892. 1392.
North St. Louis Business MenTs Association.
1915.
Or ear, G. W.

Historical Review, 1895-1915.

Commercial and Architectural St. Louis. 1888.

Osgood, Charles N. Some Phases o£_the Commercial Development of St. Louis,
a Pa^er Read~ .. % Before the^St. Louis Commercial Cluh, October 15;
1892. "IB92. ~
" ' "
Overstolz, Henry. The City of St. JLouis: Its History, Growth, and Industries. i860»
Overton, R. C. The First Ninety_Years;_ An Historical Sketch of the Burlington Railroad, 1850-1940. * 19to
Papin;i Silvester Vilray. Review of the Real Estate Business of St. Louis
in 1877. I878.
Parton, James. The City of St. LouislS'~'k.
Paullin, Charles 0. Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States.
1932.
Pen and Sunlight Sketches of St. Louis; The Commercial Gateway to the South.
"TB92?
Petersen, William J. Steamboatlng On The Upper Mississippi, the Water Way
to Iowa. 1937.
Philadelphia Board of Trade. Report of the Excursion Party of the Board of
Trade of Philadelphia, October 15th, i860, i860.
Photographic Views of the Great Cyclone at St. Louis, May 27, 1896. 1896.
Porter, Robert Percival.

The West: From 1800-1880.

1882.

Powell Lyman Pierson, ed, Histori c Towns of the Western States. 1901.
Primm, Wilson. History of St.Louis. In Missouri Historical Society of
St. Louis Collection." IV7 No. 2. 1913.
Quick, H. American Inland Waterways: Their Relation to Railway Transportation and to the National Welfare, Their Creation, Restoration
and Maintenance. 1909•
Quick, H. and E. Mississippi Steamboatln1; A History of Steamboating on
the Mississippiand Its Trlbutarles. "926.
Quiett, Glen C. They Built the West. 193*4.



Appendix BB
Sheet 3.5 of 15
Randall, J. G.

The Civil War and Reconstruction.

1937.

Reavis, Logan Uriah. A Change of National Empire. 1869.
Reavis, Logan Uriah. History of the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge With, a
Fine Colored Lithograph. i f t f t
Reavis, Logan Uriah. Nation and Its Capital; Being a Presentation of Facts
and Arguments in Favor of thoT Removal of the Federal Metropolis
From the Potomac to the Mississippi River. 1883.
Reavis, Logan Uriah. St. Louis, the Commercial Metropolis of the Mississippi
Valley. i S ^ T
Reavis, Logan Uriah.

St. Louis:

the Future Great City of the World. 1875.

Reavis, Logan Uriah. The Railway and River Systems of the City of St. Louis,
With a Brief Statement of Fact^f Designed 'to"Demonstrate that
St^ Louis is Rapidly Becoming the Food Distributing Center of the
North Amerlean Continent, Also a, Presentation of the Great Commerciai and Manufacturing Establishments of St. Louis. 1879*
Redesdalo, Lord. Memorles of St. Louls 1873.

1915.

Reedy, W. M. St. Louis, the Future Great City. In L. P. Powell's Anthology
Historic Towns of the Western States? 1901.
Reedy; W. M.

The Makers of St. Louis. 1906.

Reid, James Allan. Picturesque St. Louis, the Deep Waterways and New
St. Louis Edition. 1910.
Reinhardt, A. H. The_Gunboats of James B. Eads During the Civil War.
Thesis
"T93oT"
Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States, from the Compromise of
1850. I89T-I922T
Richard

Brenda E. St. Louis During; the C vll War.
ton Uni ver s 1 ty7~19 3^* •

Riegel, R. E.

Thesis (A.M.) - Washing-

America Moves West. 1930.

Rilejy Louise. Mississippi River Transportation.
University[ 192k'.

Thesis (A.M.) - Washington

Ring, John, Jr. St. Louis as the Manufacturing Center. 1922.
Ripley, William Zebina. Bal Iwa^ Problems . 1913*
Rodnick, David• The Economic Development of St. Louis and the Surrounding
Area. TtFT-191^- "St. Louis was Promises." 19^?.
Rozier, Firman A. History of the Early Settlement of the Mississippi Valley.

1890.

Russell, C. E. A-Rafting on the Miisslssip'. 3.928,



Appendix BB
Sheet 3.5 of 15
St. Louis Board of Public Service.

St. Louis the Center of America. 19^5.

St. Louis Chamber of Commerce. Proceedings of the St. Louis Chamber of
Commerce in Relation to the Improvement of the Navigation of
The Mississippi River. l8^2~
"
St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.

St. Louis as It is Today. 1938.

St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.

St. Louis, the Center of America. 19^-5.

St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and American Retailers1 Assn. Greater St.
Louis. 1919-1927.
St. Louis Chamber of Commerce Industrial Bureau.
Louis. lobk.

Industrial Report on St.

St. Louis Chamber of Commerce. Research Bureau. Manufacturers, St. Louis,
Industrial Area. January 19^6.
St. Louis Daily Record. Fifty Years of Civic Progress 1890-19^0. 19*10.
St. Louis. Merchants' Exchange. Annual Statement of the Trade and Commerce
for St. Louis l866~1924~ ~
St. Louis Real Estate Exchange. St. Louis, Its Accomplishments and Its
Future. 190<5, .
St. Louis Shoe Manufacturers' Assn., St. Louis, Mo. Growth and Present
Looati onal Pattern of the Boot and Shoe Manufacturing I nd LIS try
in the" St. Louis Area. 19387~
St. Louis Society of Automobile Pioneers. A History of Automobiles in St.
Loirs and Part that City Has Taken in the Development of the
Automobile. 1930.
St. Louls Star. Register of the Financial, Commercial , Professional, and
Manufacturing Interests of St. Louis; Mo. 1888.
St. Louis Star. The City of St. Louis and Its Resources. IS93.
St. Louis Up to Date; the Great Industrial Hive of the Mississippi Valley.
1B95.
Sauer, Carl 0. Tho Geography of the Ozark Highland of Missouri. 1920.
Saunders, William Llewellyn. St. Louis in 1910 - Fourth City in the
United Stetes. 1910 /
Saxon, Lyle. Father Mississippi. 1927.
Schafer, Joseph.

Tho t ¥.1 scons in Le ad R eg 1 on. 1932.

Scharf, John Thomas. History of St. Louis City and County, from the Earliest Periods to the Present Day; Including Biographical Sketches
of Representative- Men. 2 vols. "T8H3.
Schoolcraft, Henry R. A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri.



1819.

Appendix BB
Slice t 11 of 15
Seddon. J. A. St., Louis, A Lake and Gulf Port. 1904.
Semple, E. C. American History and Its Geographic Conditions. 1903•
Shannon, F. A.

Economic History of the People of the United States. 1934•

Shapleigh Hardware Company.
Shepard

E. H.

1870.

One Hundred Years of Growth. 19^3•

The Early History of St. Louis and Missouri, from 1673 to 184 •

Shoemaker, E. C. Missouri; Day hy Day. 1942.
Shoemaker, E. C. Missouri and Mlssourlo.ns. 19^3 •
Skillman, William D. Western Metropolis of St. Louis in 1846. 1846.
Skrainka, P.

St. Louis:

Its History and Ideals, 1910.

Smith, G. C. An Outline for Market Surveys. 1930.
Snow, Marshall S. History of the Development of Missouri, and Particularly_
of St. Louis. 2 vols. 19057~
Soraghan, Catherine V. TheHistory of St. Louis, I865-I876.
Washington University. 1936.

Thesis (A.M.)

Southworth, Mrs. Gertrude (Van Duyn). Great Cities of the United. States,
Historical, Descriptive, Commercial, Industrial. 19-l6\
Spencer, Thomas E.

Story of Old Stv Louis. 1914,

Stevens, George W, Some Aspects of Early Intorsectlonal Rivalry for the
Commerce of the Upper Mj ss3 sslpp 1 Valley. 1923 .
Stevens, W. B.

Centennial History Oi Missouri, the Center State. 1921.

Stevens W. B. Missouri, The Center State, 1821-1915.

1915.

Stevens, W. B. St. Louis in the Twentieth Century. 1909.
Stevens, W. B. St. Louis, the Fourth C-ty, 1764-1911.

3 vols. 1909.

Stevens, W. B. St. Louis To-Day. 1912.
Stevens, W. B.

The Building of St .Louis. 1908.

Sturgeon, Isaac Hughes. The Merchants Bridge ... An Appeal hy the North St.
Louis Clt:: zons As 00 01 at ion T iBbBT

~~~

~~

' ~~

Switzlor, W. K. History of Missouri, 154l-l88l, l88l.
Taussig, Dr. William. Origin and. Development of St. Louis Terminals. 1912.
Taylor, J. N. Sketch Book of St. Louis .Contemning a Series of Sketches of
the Early Settlement, Public Buildings, etc. 1858.



Appendix BB
Sheet 3.5 of 15
Teitelbaum, L. N. The Labor Market in St. Lou in. Thesis (M.S.) - Washington
University. 1929.
Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, Fifty Years of Transportation,
1894-19^4-. 1944.
Thomas, Lewis Francis.
1924.

The Geography of the St. Louis Trade Territory.

Thomas, Lewis Francis. The Localization of Business Activities in Metropolitan St. Louis. 1927.
Thomas , Mart in. Report Upon the Facilities Afforded by the Vicinity of the
City of St. Louis for the Establishment of a National Armory,
December 2, 1841. 1841.
Thomas, William Lyman.

History of St. Louis County, Mo.

2 vols. 1911.

Thwaites, R. G> "Notes on Early Lead Mining in the Fever (or Galena) Region."
In Wisconsin H-storlcal Collections. 1895. XIII, p. 271.
U. S. Department of Commerce. Domestic Commerce Series No. 30. Market Data
Handbook of the U.S. 1929.
U. S. Labor Statistics Bureau.
1944.

Impact of the War on the St. Louis Area: 1944.
—'
~~
'
~

U. S. Statistics Bureau. Department of Commerce and Labor. Monthly Summary
of Commerce and Finance of the IT. S. 52 vols. 1882-1911U. S. Statistics, Bureau of. Treasury Depa.rtm.ent. Report on the Internal
Commerce of the U. S. by Joseph Nimmo, Jr. 1884-1885.
U. S. Works Progress Administration, Mis sour"' . Traf f i c Survey Data on the
City of St. Louis. 1938.
U. S. Work Projects Admini strati on. Industrial Directory of the State of
Missouri. 1939.
~
~
~
Van Metre, Thurman W.
Ve stal, Stanley.

The Economic History of the United States. 1921.

The Missouri.

1945.

Violette, E. M. A Hlsory of Missouri . 1917.
Vogt5 Herbert J. Boot and Shoe Industry of St. Louls^
Washington University. 1929.

Thesis (A.M.)

Walker, Thomas J. and Hardaway, Luther. Our State of Missouri. 1928.
Walmsley, R.

The State of Ml ssourl. 1932.

Wandell, Harry Brazee.

The Story of a Great City in a Nutshell. 1901.

Waterhouse, Sylvestor. New St. Louis; Its Causes, Needs and Duties. 1893•
Waterhouse, Sylvestor. The Resources of Missouri, and the Natural Adaptation of St. Louis to Iron Manufact\xros. 1867.




Appendix BB
Sheet 3.5 of 15
¥aterhouse, Sylvester. The Westward Movement of Capital, and the Facilities
which St. Louis and Missouri Offered for its Investment. 1890.
Welker, Adolph. History of St. Louis 1855-1901:-. 190k.
Wells, Holla. St. Louis After the World's Fair.
White, Marian A. City of St. Louie - Original Gateway to a Greater West
and Portal to a Greater Southwest,. 1 9 0 "
~
Willard.. James Field, Experiments in Colorado Colonization, i069-i872.
1926.

Williams? Helen D. Factors In the Growth of St. Louis from lSkO to i860.
Thesis (A.M~) - WasM ngtoiTllrf versity . I93U.
Williams, Walter, ed. A History of Northeast _M* ssourl. 1913.
Williams, Walter and Shoemaker, Floyd C. Missouri Mother of the West.
5 vols. 19^0.
Wilson, John H. St. Louis the WorldTs Shoe Market. 1920?.
Winther, Oscar Q. The Trans--Mississippi West:
Literature 1.811-1.^8. I9F

a Guide to Its Periodical

Wood, Mabel V. Geographic Landscape of the Northwest Industrial District,
Metropolitan St. Louis. Thesis (MS.) - Washlngton Univers1ty.
19lF/
Wight, Clarence A. Mining and Milling of Lead and Lime Ores in the
Mi s sour 1 -Kr. nsas - Oklahoma Lime District. '1918^ '
~~
Writers' Program. Missouri, A Gu? de To The "Show Mo" State. 191*-!.
Yeakle, M. M.

The City of St. Louis of Today.

1889.

Yeakle, Malilon M. The Clty_ of St. Louis: Metropolis of the Great West and
Great South" 'n 1899. " 189>.~
Yeo.rbook of the Coramerc 1 al, Banking, and Manxrfacturlng Interests of St.
Louis 1082*1683.
~~
Yoakum, Benjamin F. The Relations of the River and Agricultural Development to St. Louis; Address Delivered Before the Business Men's
League at St. Lot j s, Missouri, January 16,' 1912. 1912.
PEET0D1CALS and MAGAZINES.
The Age of Steel. St. Louis, 1891-1901.
American Architect and Building News.
American Review of Reviews.




"St. Louis Exposition, 1898."
LXXIV, p. 5.

"City Surrounded by the United States,"
G. P. Khapp., June 1917.

Appendix BB
Sheet 3.5 of 15
American Woman's Review.
Atlantic Monthly.

S4". Louis, Centennial number, September, 1909 •

"City of St. Louis," James Parton, XIX, 186?.

Bankers1 Magazine.

"St. Louis, Missouri", New York, LX, p. 911.

Central Magazine. St. Louis, I, September, 1872.
The City Journal.

Official publication of the City of St. Louis, 1919 -

De Bow* s Commercial Review.

"Bridge at St. Louis," S. Water house, Now
Series, V, p. 412.
"Commerce of American Cities," IV, p. 400, 1851.
"St. Louis Steamers," I p. 277-8, 18^8.
"St. Lou:* s, the Commercial Center," S. Waterhouse,
New Series, IV, p. 308.
"St. Louis, the Future National Capital," S. ,
Waterhouse, New series, V, p. 1907.

Executive * s Magazine . "America at Work,"
St. Louis Globe Democrat.

St. Louis.

"The new St. Louis, a great city," Nov. 9, 1941.
"St. Louis expands her export range " Chris L.
Murray, Feb. 27, 1927.

Harpers Nuw Monthly Magazine. New York, 1884.
Harperfs Weekly.

"New Growth of St. Louis," Julian Ralph, XXXVT, 1892.
"Now Union Station at St. Louis," XXXVIII, Sept. 15, 1894,
pp. 868-70.

HuntTs Merchants* Magazine.

"Commerce and Trade of St. Louis, Missouri,"
XV p. 162, XVII, p. 176.

Illinois Monthly Magazine.

"Early History of St. Louis," II, p. 312, 355.

The Inland Monthly Magazine.

St, Louis, 1873.

Journal of Agrie;at!vre_. St. Louis, 1866-70.
Journal of Geography.

"Geographical Principles in the Study of Cities,"
D. C. Ridgley, XX1T, pp. 66-78.

Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics.

Lippincottrs Magazine.

"St, Louis Exposition," J. Cox, L, p. 510.

Mercantile Library Association.

"Missouri and Illinois Newspapers Arranged
Chronology caliy 1808-1897," St. Louis, 1898.

Merchants1 Magazine and Commerclal Review.
Mississippi Valley Historical Review.
Nation.



"An Analysis of Mississippi
River Traffic," John D. Simmer,
Nov. 1931 a,nd Feb. 1932.

1839-1870.

I, June

1914.

"Bridge at St. Louis," G. S. Mori son XXXIV, p. 280.

Appendix BB
New England Magazine.
The Pennant.

"City of St. Louis,"

Sheet 3.5 of 15
Calvin Milton Woodward, 1892.

St. Louis, 1840.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"Why St. Louis grows/'

The Pall way Age end Northwestern Railroader.

1927-

"St. Louis as a Traffic Center,"
June 8, 1894, XIX, p. 325.

"One Hundredth Anniversary, I808-I908," Centennial
edition, 1908.

St. Louis Republic.

Missouri Republican.

Review of Reviews.

"Annual review history of St. Louis, 1853*"
"Annual review: history of St. Louis,"Jan. 10, 1854.
"Annual review of the commerce of St. Louis for the
years 1852-1859."
"Strong Western City," W, F. Saunders, May, 1903,

xxvil/pp. 557, 564.
St. Louis Star.

Inaugural edition, 1904.
"The city of St. Louis and its resources," 1893.

Scientific American.

"Manufacture of Tin at St. Louis," May 28, 1892,
LXVI, pp. 335,
"St. Louis disaster," August 1, 1896, LXXV, p. 119.

Valley Farmer.

St. Louis, 1856.

The Western. St. Louis, 1875-1881.
We stern Journal and Civilian. St. Louis, 1848-1856.
"St. Louis and the Tennessee River trade,"
Micajah Tarver, April 1851.
"St. Louis and Iron Mountain R ilroad," VIII,
p. 115.
"Commerce of St. Louis," XI, Jan. 1, 1849.