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THE PORTRAIT OF LACLEDE

The portrait of Laclede, which is given the place of honor in St. Louis, the Fourth City, is an engraved copy of the original in the family chateau at Bedous. Until recently the existence of this original portrait of the founder was not known to St. Louisans. Before the Worlds' Fair, a commission was given to Jonathan Scott Hartley, one of the best, if not the best of American portrait sculptors of this generation, to produce a statue of Laclede. Mr. Hartley became deeply interested in his subject. He devoted much time to the collection of all of the information then obtainable about the personality of Laclede. From descendants, from family traditions, from descriptions given by those who had known the founder and who had given their recollections to early historians, Mr. Hartley gathered his impressions. He embodied them in the statue of Laclede, which was placed on the World's Fair grounds and which is now preserved in the art museum. A picture of Mr. Hartley's statue is given herewith. The idealization as to form is undoubtedly accurate. The sculptor presented the founder in the dress of a captain-commandant of the period. He portrayed Laclede as wearing a sword and holding in his right hand a scroll conveying the exclusive trading privilege which prompted the settlement of St. Louis.

Discovery of the original portrait of Laclede followed the World's Fair. In a measure this discovery may be attributed to the stimulus which the World's Fair gave to historic research along local lines. Very little was known, even by the St. Louis descendants of Laclede, about his origin or early life until within the past two or three years.

In 1877 Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, then United States minister to France, obtained, officially, information of the antecedents of Pierre Laclede. He was prompted to make the inquiry because of his family relationship to the founder of St. Louis. Mrs. Washburne was a descendant of Laclede. She was a Gratiot. Her father was Henry Gratiot, a grandson of Laclede.

The inquiry was conducted by Minister Washburne through Pierre Margry, who consulted the records in the Ministry of the Marine of the Colonies. "M. Margry was able," he wrote, "to indicate the connections of the founder of St. Louis, which are not such as stated in a newspaper of that city in 1845, according to the report of Mr. Nicollet."

From the official records of France, Mr. Margry gave the following information respecting the Laclede family:

"Pierre Laclede Liguest was a native of the parish of Bedous, Valle d'Aspe, diocese d'Oloron en Beam, about fifteen leagues from Pau (Basses-Pyrenees). He was the younger brother of a Mr. Laclede, maitre particulier des Eaux et Forets of the province of Beam pays de Soule et Basse Navarre. (I don't think this has ever been published.) Pierre Laclede went to Louisiana in 1755 and founded a commercial establishment in New Orleans."

In 1905 and 1906, Theophile Papin, Jr., a descendant of Laclede, was traveling in Europe. He had become very much interested in the life and character of Laclede as known in connection with the founding and early history of St. Louis. Accompanied by his mother, Mrs. Theophile Papin, Sr., Mr. Papin made a pilgrimage to the family home of the Lacledes in the Valley of Aspe. There was no difficulty in finding the Laclede chateau. The family had been prominent and influential for generations. Mr. Papin learned that the father of Pierre Laclede was syndic and mayor-lieutenant of the Valley of the Aspe; that he was identified with the history of that part of France, near the border of Spain; that his name was Jean de Laclede.

No descendants in France now bear the family name. The male line has not been perpetuated. Mr. Papin found a lineal descendant of the brother of Pierre Laclede in the person of the wife of Dr. Alfred Madamet; the mother of Madame Madamet was born Laclede. As the representative of the American branch of the family, Mr. Papin was made welcome and was given every assistance to add to his information about the early years of Pierre Laclede. He was shown, in the chateau, the portrait of Pierre Laclede, painted about the age of thirty, when he was preparing to leave France to establish himself in the Mississippi Valley. Even then Laclede had in mind the forming of a settlement. He organized a small company of young men from the immediate vicinity of Bedous and intended to lead them. One of these young men was Ortes, who remained with Laclede and came with him to St. Louis. Every facility was afforded by Dr. and Madame Madamet to Mr. Papin to obtain a perfect copy of the portrait, which is reproduced in this work. The portrait was painted 154 years ago. It was in a state of perfect preservation, as the engraving would indicate. In accordance with the custom of that period, the artist gave to the background the sentimental suggestion of the occasion for the painting of the portrait. Laclede was about to leave for the New World. In the distance was painted a ship with sails set for the voyage. The artist added his idea of the destination in the form of a rugged shore line and a tropical tree. Bordeaux was then the seaport for the part of France in which the Lacledes lived. Pierre Laclede, according to the family history, sailed from Bordeaux, with his little colony, for New Orleans.

The elder brother of Pierre Laclede was, as Margry reported to Minister Washburne, master of streams and forests for a province, an official position of importance. Upon the family estate of the Lacledes was an old mill, which was operated, according to family history, in connection with the farming when Pierre Laclede was a young man. When the founder of St. Louis left his ancestral home, he had acquired a thorough knowledge of agriculture and of milling; he was well versed in civil engineering as understood and practiced a century and a half ago; he was, in a general way, well educated. The family of the Lacledes were sufficiently prosperous to give this younger son the capital with which to establish himself in the New World.

Pierre Laclede was a man of striking physique. According to the family traditions, he was of erect, commanding presence. In stature, he was above the average in the community. He is said to have been about five feet and eight and a half or nine inches in height. He had a dark complexion, olive rather than swarthy. His forehead was broad, the nose was prominent. Laclede's black eyes, which seemed to penetrate, arc remembered as constituting one of the most impressive of his physical traits.

Pierre Laclede, as the traditions hold, was a man of restless energy. He made frequent trips, arduous as the mode of transportation was in those days, between St. Louis and New Orleans. In winter time he made the journey on horseback, through the Indian country. He gave his personal attention to the fur trading affairs of his house. He was the outside active director, leaving to Auguste Chouteau, who was methodical and painstaking, the care of the books, of the stocks and of the office business generally.

When Richard Edwards wrote his Great West, about 1855, he consulted with Madame Elizabeth Ortes. He said she was at that time "the only woman living who recollects the founder of St. Louis." Mr. Edwards gave from the recollection of Madame Ortes, this description of Laclede:

"He was little above the medium size, of very dark complexion, with a large nose, expansive brow, and piercing and expressive eyes."

Madame Ortes was born at Vincennes the year that St. Louis was founded, 1764, and came in her childhood to St. Louis. She was fourteen years of age when Laclede died. Her opportunity to know the founder was excellent. Jean B. Ortes, the husband of Elizabeth Ortes, was one of the companions of Laclede who came with him from the old home on the southern border of France. Jean R. Ortes built the first church in St. Louis. He was a carpenter, a cabinet-maker and was living in the town when the first newspaper was started. Madame Ortes survived him many years and according to Edwards, was in good health with an astonishing memory at the age of ninety-six. The Philibert family descended from her, a daughter having married Joseph Philibert, who was one of the early fur traders.

The traditions handed down in St. Louis confirm the information which Mr. Papin obtained from family sources in France, that Laclede had in mind, from the time he left home, the founding of a colony of his own somewhere in the Mississippi Valley. By years of planning he prepared himself for the establishment of St. Louis.

The transfer of sovereignty from France to Spain did not at all change Laclede's ambition. The founder had been reared at the foot of the Pyrenees almost on the border of Spain and had acquired a knowledge of the language of Spain, as well as of the laws and customs of the Spanish people.

Pierre Laclede adopted an American, democratic style of writing his name when he became a resident of the Mississippi Valley. He dropped the "De Laclede." No signature of his which bears that form can be found. His favorite way of signing his name was "Laclede" or "Laclede Liguest."

When he died in 1778, Laclede was fifty-four years of age. He had been in this country twenty-three years. He left France when he was about thirty-one years old.

In the possession of this generation of the Laclede family in France is the silver plate used by the father and the brother of the founder of St. Louis. The pieces bear the family coat of arms. The reproduction, in black and white, does not do justice to the beautiful coloring of the heraldic design. The coat of arms of the Lacledes is described, technically, as. "blue with face of gold, accompanied in chief with three towers of silver; in the point, a woodcock in silver with two roses of same color. On the sides are two eagles with spreading wings supporting the crest. The escutcheon is surmounted with a crown in the impression of the full coat of arms upon the plate. Used as a seal the escutcheon was surmounted by a helmet." The Lacledes were authorized to use the crown or the helmet at will above the escutcheon.

To Mr. Papin, whom he addressed as "my dear cousin," Dr. Madamet not long ago sent copies of the coat of arms taken from silver plate of the family. He also sent, as a souvenir, a book from the library in the chateau, concluding his letter, "The old home of the Lacledes is open cordially to you." Dr. Madamet is a surgeon of high rank in the French army. Madame Madamet was born Garneau. Her mother was born Laclede, the last to bear the name of the immediate family.

Interesting, in connection with this recent discovery by a Laclede descendant, of the family coat-of-arms, was the statement which the venerable Cerre Chouteau made in his latter days. Cerre Chouteau was a grandson of Pierre Laclede. He described to younger members of the family a seal bearing this same design which had belonged to Laclede Liguest and which at one time had been in his possession but had been lost. The historian Margry, in correspondence with descendants of Laclede described the family coat-of-arms as presented.