Before Lewis and Clark: The Story of the Chouteaus, the French Dynasty That Ruled America's Frontier

by Shirley Christian

Book Overview

Shortly after Meriweather Lewis reached St. Louis in 1803 to plan for his voyage to the Pacific with William Clark, he prepared his first packet of flora and fauna from west of the Mississippi and dispatched it to President Jefferson. The cuttings, which were later planted in Philadelphia and Virginia, were supplied by Lewis's new French friend, Pierre Chouteau, who took them from a tree growing in the garden of his mansion. One of the best-known...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374110050
• ISBN13: 9780374110055
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 509 Pages
• Weight: 1.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent source for historians and genealogists.

For those who study history with the genealogist's eye, this is an invaluable work. The charts, other families mentioned, detailed records that others find tedious, and fur trade information make it indispensable. If you just want a school kid's glossed-over history with anglo overtones, skip this one. This is the real story of who opened trade to the west.

Fur Trade Family Connections Classic

For anyone interested in the early history of the American West this book is an invaluable resource. The Chouteaus and other families in St Louis continuously intermarried and did business with each other. This book supplies what has been lacking in the literature of the fur trade, a solid and careful recounting of the story of their lives and business dealings, backed up with page by page notes, citing sources completely. The title of the book is misleading, as it covers much more. The story of the fur trade is quite complicated and has long needed a comprehensive analysis of the families involved. Anyone who has read fur trade history and been baffled by all the people and their business and personal relationships will turn to it as a definitive resource.It is clearly written. It is not a "page turner," though the stuff of it has the been the source of many a good book.

Exceptionally well done

Shirley Christian's work on the legacy of the Chouteau family should be considered the definitive on this subject area. After reading numerous books on the fur trade, it was enlightening and a treat to learn so much of the importance of this intriguing ancestry. From the days of establishing St. Louis in 1764 by Pierre Laclede Liguest (Chouteau) and his fourteen year old son Auguste Chouteau, up to circa 1850's, Christian leaves no stone unturned. How this extensive family was so instrumental in the politics, economy, real estate, Indian affairs, groundwork of western expansion, etc. is truly a saga of fascination. It is fortunate that the author included the Chouteau family tree as the names can become quite confusing (many Pierre's, Auguste's, Chouteau's, inter-marriages with the Gratiot's, Papin's and Labbadie's). Although not totally devoted to the era "before" Lewis and Clark, it is nevertheless an absorbing and accommodating read, extensively researched.

well researched and interesting, though of limited scope

OK-I'm going on the wild assumption that you're checking out this book because of your interest in Lewis and Clark. Be warned, the subject matter in Christian's book is somewhat tangentially related, although you will be given little entertaining factoids such as that one of the scientific specimens sent back to Jefferson from St Louis at the start of the Expedition was a large hairball from the stomach of a buffalo.I live in St Louis, so I found the story of its founding (by the Chouteaus and their father/husband Laclede) interesting. Christian lives up to the subtitle by giving you a detailed picture of the life of this dynasty as it affected this area, which means you get a good idea of what it was like to be a trader on the Missouri (and some of the neighboring rivers), including interesting insights into relations with American Indians. Indeed, it was quite eye-opening to see how welcoming the Indians initially were of the French settlers/traders in and around St Louis. It was also informative to read of how the French and Indians interbred and lived quite comfortably with one another, although on unequal terms. The Chouteau dynasty began in the 1760's and continued for roughly another 80 years or so, so they had to accommodate and adapt to the change in governance that occurred with the Louisiana Purchase by the US (which although purchased from France, consisted of a territory immediately previously administered-with a very long rein-by Spain).If you're looking more for some background into what was known about the area encompassed by the Louisiana Purchase at the time L + C started off on their expediation (and quite a bit was known; and in fact North America had already been traversed in Canada, so L + C weren't quite the 'firsts' they're made out to be), check out The Course of Empire by DeVoto. To learn about the journey itself which, not withstanding the caveats above, is truly fascinating story, do yourself a favor and try to find something other than the popular Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose. The account provided by Ambrose is in my opinion is seriously flawed, fundamentally lacking in basic historical background necessary to appreciate the Expedition, e.g., any indication of who'd previously explored the regions into which they were heading and lacking a summary map illustrating the geographic (mis)information L + C used to plan their journey. Undaunted Courage also falls down whenever Ambrose attempts the most rudimentary analysis. To top it off, his writing style often made me cringe. To provide socioeconomic and political background to the Purchase and the settlement that was to follow it, I recommend Mr Jefferson's Loast Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase by Roger Kennedy.