Arnold History Timeline
ARNOLD HISTORY TIMELINE 1774 to 1972
1774 – John Hildebrand, German immigrant, arrives from Monongahela County, Pennsylvania. He is the first white settler in what is now Jefferson County. He develops the Meramec settlement rear Saline Creek with a protective fort.
1776 – French surveyor Jean Baptiste Gamache gains a grant from the King of Spain to build a Meramec River ferry and widen Indian trails into a road between St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve. He is also among this area’s first non-Indian settlers.
Photo from the May 31st, 2013 filming of DeSoto at Chickasaw Farms.
May 31, 2013
Photographer: Jacquelyn Sparks
1798 – John Clark, a Methodist preacher from Scotland, delivers the first Protestant sermon west of the Mississippi River. Protestant ceremonies are prohibited in the Spanish Territory, so Clark preaches from a boat on the Mississippi to pioneers on shore.
1803 – In the Louisiana Purchase that President Thomas Jefferson negotiated with Napoleon Bonaparte, the colonies acquire 828,000 square miles of unmapped land west of the Mississippi River, mostly inhabited by Native Americans.
1806 – French trappers call this area “The Missouri Territory.” The name Missouri is Algonquian for “people with canoes made from logs.”
1807 – St. Louis is called “Gateway to the West” as mountain men, adventurers, and pioneers head northwest following Louis & Clark’s Missouri River route to the new frontier, and trading along the Mississippi.
1812 – Fear of Native American Indian raids start to fade after the War of 1812. When the colonial army wins the war in 1815, the military begins to protect local settlements from hostile tribes notably the fierce Osage.
1815 – Lead, iron ore and zinc found in south- and west-central Missouri. The minerals are sent to St. Louis from Jefferson County on the Meramec and Mississippi River.
1817 – The Zebulon Pike, the first steamboat to reach St. Louis, labors up the Mississippi for its riverfront arrival on August 2. Hundreds of onlookers cheer it as new progress for the “Gateway to the West.”
1818 –The Missouri Legislature votes to divide St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve into a new county. The 657 square-mile county borders the Mississippi River and named for President Jefferson.
Jefferson Barracks Civil War
1818 – Jefferson County’s first county seat is at Herculaneum. The First Circuit Court for the Northern Circuit of Missouri meets in a cabin; it taxes owners of horses, mules, cattle, slaves, billiard tables, mills, tanneries, and distilleries.
1821 – Missouri enters entered the Union as a slave state after Congress votes to make slavery illegal in most territories, except Missouri. That legislation is known as the Missouri Compromise.
1824 – The community of Sandy Mines takes shape when lead is discovered in Jefferson County. Ownership of the small mine there changes several times in its 100 years of operation.
1824 – French families in St. Louis named Chouteau, Laclede and Soulard, buy huge tracts of land in Jefferson County for less than fifty cents per acre in a foreclosure sale. They profit by selling land to new immigrants.
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Arnold archstl.org
1826 – Jefferson Barracks opens with six officers and 245 enlisted troops. It is a vital U.S. Army presence. Its first conflict is the Black Hawk War when soldiers push “hostile Indians” into Iowa territory.
1830 – Union troops begin relocating Native Americans to outside Missouri due to the federal Indian Removal Act of 1830. At the time, there were eight known Native American tribes living in Missouri, including the brutal Osage.
1833 – Two men in Germany form the Giessen Emigration Society to create a utopia with democratic freedoms they do not have under German aristocracy. In 1834, more than five hundred German settlers relocate to Jefferson County and nearby.
1838 – The Jefferson County seat moves to Hillsboro. Its first courthouse is a brick structure, measuring 50 by 33 feet, with a stone basement, four rooms on the first floor and a 31-by-37-foot courtroom on the second floor.
1839 – French immigrant Christopher Frederici sells a tract land to Father Joseph C. Fischer who builds the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, the area’s first formal house of worship.
1840 – Advancements in steam engine technology encourage availability of side-wheeler and paddlewheel steamboats on the Mississippi River. Shallow-draft steamboats with powerful engines will maneuver rough currents, logs, and snags, revolutionizing river travel.
Confederate General Jeff Thompson – The Swamp Fox https://commons.wikimedia.org/
1861 – The Civil War begins. Unionists dominate Missouri, not Confederates, because thousands of new immigrants come from nations including Germany where slavery is forbidden. Jefferson Barracks is a key Union Army stronghold.
1861 – Confederate General Jeff Thompson, “The Swamp Fox,” enters Blackwell Township to destroy the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway bridge across the Big River. He burns it down to keep Union troops stranded there.
1863 – Union army engineers build the Meramec River Suspension Bridge at the site of today’s Lemay Ferry Road. It is used by primarily by Union troops but also by Confederate guerrillas known as “bushwhackers.”
1864 – St. Joseph Lead Company of New York buys 946.32 acres of land near Jefferson County at Bonne Terre. It slowly starts to mine lead but, by 1890, it is the largest lead smelter in the United States.
1864 –Jefferson County’s economy evolves when the Iron Mountain Railroad begins transporting iron ore, cord wood, and horses from Francois County and local dairies start shipping huge vats of milk, cream, and butter daily to St. Louis.
1864 – The Battle of Pacific on October 1 protects St. Louis from Confederate invasion. At dawn, a Confederate cavalry brigade torched every structure in town. After furious fighting for hours, the Union’s 16th Army Corps drove the Confederates out.
1865 – On April 9, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, formally ending the Civil War. Confederate “Bushwhackers” Jesse and Frank James begin robbing banks and trains.
1865 – April 14, stage actor John Wilkes Booth shoots Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, in the head by while attending the play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.
1865 – The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway begins to serve Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. “KT” is its timetable abbreviation and stock exchange symbol begetting the popular railroad nickname “The Katy.”
1866 –Margaret Louisa Frederici, a local girl whose grandfather helped establish the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, marries Union Army private William F. Cody, who later gains fame as “Buffalo Bill” Cody. The Codys stay married for 51 years.
1867 – Construction of Lemay Ferry Road to the suspension bridge the Union army built across the Meramec River boosts the economy by enabling farmers and merchants to reach more markets to buy or sell.
1868 – Miners discover that sand in Jefferson County is of the quality necessary for making plate glass. The American Plate Glass Company opens in Detroit. Jefferson County sand is shipped routinely to Detroit for plate glass processing.
1897 Dorris Dos-i-Dos Runabout Model
1870 – Local authorities announce conversion of dirt roads to gravel roads in Jefferson County. Mudholes, rocks, and tree roots delay everything. In 1913, the Missouri Highway Department is created, and more new gravel roads are built.
1874 – The Eads Bridge opens in St. Louis as a road and rail bridge across the Mississippi into Illinois, and vice versa. Commissioned by steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, it ends the heyday of riverboat industries, boosting railroad industries.
1891 – Anheuser Busch purchases the Cedar Crest Country Club on lower Tenbrook Road as an employee retreat. Soon it opens for public enjoyment. The grounds host picnics, ball games and other recreations near the Meramec River.
1898 – George Dorris and John French create the St. Louis Motor Carriage Co., the first St. Louis automaker. It produces automobiles from 1899 to 1924. French was one of only three drivers to finish a New York-to-Buffalo race in 1901.
Frisco Railroad locomotive chugging through Jefferson County
1900 – Frederitzi Hall is a popular spot for people miles around. Like a pioneer shopping mall, it has a saloon, general store, meat market, cream separator, hauling service, and a car-selling business called Anything on Wheels.
1901 – St. Louis is the auto industry hub west of the Mississippi. Many experimental models are granted patents. In addition to St. Louis Motor Carriage Co., manufacturers include Langan, Stanhope, and Moon. Walt Disney owned a Moon Roadster.
1902 – The St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, known as the Frisco, builds Tenbrook Station, hiring local workers to maintain tracks and pumps to fill the trackside water tower. The station lounge hosts a lively tavern for travelers and locals.
1902 – Jefferson County farmers purchase gasoline engine-powered tractors from the Weber Farm Implement Co. when it opens on Main Street in St. Louis near today’s Gateway Arch. George Weber, Sr. is proprietor.
1905 – The first dedicated gas station in St. Louis opens at 420 South Theresa Avenue. Called a “filling station,” it sells gasoline and oil for any type of gas-powered device, including cars, trucks, and tractors.
1908 – Horses, buggies, and wagons start phasing out as primary modes of transportation. The Weber Farm Implement Co. reorganizes as the Weber Implement & Automobile Company to add cars to its product lines.
1910 – Approximately 100,000 automobiles are registered in the U.S. Most are sold through a variety of channels, including mail order, department stores, and traveling salespeople. Many are sold by owners of gas stations.
1914 – World War I – 23 honored dead in Jefferson County paid the ultimate price. 1914–1918
1921 – The Missouri Highway Commission is created. It shifts highway building management from the local to state level. More than 1,500 miles of newly paved or graveled dirt roads soon help improve Jefferson County.
1925 – Auto dealerships expand. Dozens of U.S. manufacturers make cars; few will survive. The Weber dealership in St. Louis sells cars, trucks, parts, and warranties, and begins to accept “trade-ins” when someone wants a new model.
1925 – Ambitious businessowner Ferd Lang, Sr. builds a general store, tavern, and gas station on land he buys from a man named Louis Arnold. Lang names that land Arnold to honor him. When Arnold incorporates as a city in 1972, Lang’s son Ferd B. Lang, Jr. becomes its first mayor.
Biltmore Supper Club – Jefferson County Library
1926 – Auto sales explode when U.S. Route 66 is dedicated. The “Mother Road” covers 292 miles in Missouri, entering from Galena, Kansas, through Joplin, Carthage, Springfield, Waynesville, Devils’ Elbow, Lebanon, and Rolla, through St. Louis to Illinois.
1929 – Lynn Warren creates Warren Sign in a paint shop that grows into a company at 2955 Arnold Tenbrook Road that is now one of the Midwest’s largest, specializing in all types of neon and plastic-faced signs.
1933 – Al Capone associate “Hickory Slim” Belford becomes manager of the posh Biltmore Supper Club. The building separates St. Louis County from Jefferson County. Belford moves liquor, poker tables, and slot machines from side to side to avoid raids.
1935 – The Telegraph Road Bridge is constructed to cross the Meramec River between St. Louis County and Arnold not far from what is called Flamm City to accommodate increasing motorized vehicle traffic.
1939 – Military veteran Ferd Lang, Sr., recruits 21 World War One survivors to charter Veterans of Foreign Wars Post # 2593 so veterans can share fellowship, exchange war memories, and manage charitable events.
1940 – Tesson Ferry Road Bridge, known as the Meramec River Bridge, opens to connect the Arnold and St. Louis areas. Engineer Howard Mullins says, “An effort was made to secure a structure of reasonable aesthetic fitness.”
1941 – The Rock Community Fire Protection District originates as the Rock Community Volunteer Fire Association. Money is raised from local business leaders to purchase a Reo Chassis Fire truck, 1,200 feet of hose, and assorted equipment for $1,650.
1941 – World War II – 89 honored dead in Jefferson County paid the ultimate price. 1941-1945
1945 – The first post office here opens to serve the public with general delivery until Harry Rohman becomes the area’s first mail carrier. When he retires in 1972, Flora Arnold becomes the first postmistress.
1948 – The Fox C-6 School District originated as five one-room schoolhouses that consolidated in 1948 to form the Fox Consolidated School District. Schools throughout the area were the Bowen, Seckman, Saline, Lone Dell, and Soulard Schools.
1950 – Korean War –Twelve honored dead paid the ultimate price. 1950-1953
1955 – Vietnam War – 34 honored dead paid the ultimate price. 1955-1975
1956 – Federal Aid Highway Act funds replace old U.S. Route 66 with new Interstate-55. Construction starts in 1957. A section of I-55 near Arnold’s Richardson Road cuts a farm in half. By 1975 it connects to Chicago.
First meeting of the Rock Community Fire Association http://www.Rockfire-rescue.org
1958 – Public Water Supply District Number 1, the first water district in Jefferson County, is created after citizens demand more water to serve the Fox C-6 school and for Rock Community Fire Department to put out fires.
1965 – Don Kozeny and Rich Wagner open Kozeny-Wagner Construction, Inc. with the motto “Building a Better Quality of Life” In 2018 it surpasses $1 billion in contract values since its origin.
1972 – The City of Arnold is incorporated. Arnold’s land was part of a Spanish land grant that Antoine Soulard and Auguste Chouteau, founders of St. Louis, purchased on the St. Louis Courthouse steps in a foreclosure sale on January 5, 1824. The price was $14,929.92 for 6,002 acres of land. New immigrants bought land for settlements. Some – Beck, Flamm City, Maxville, Old Town Arnold, Ten Brook and Wickes – incorporated in 1972 to form The City of Arnold. After the incorporation, business, cultural, educational, fraternal, healthcare, residential, social, and police services mushroomed.
Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold