Yearly Archives: 2022

Would You Drink Wine With Friedrich Münch?

Author, German Immigrant, Lutheran Minister, Missouri State Senator, One of Missouri’s Original Winemakers.

Friedrich Münch CoFounder of Giessen Emigration Society (1)

Today, 38 percent of Arnold’s population has German ancestral roots, and German is the number one claimed ancestry on Missouri census forms.

Within 100 miles of Arnold are dozens of vineyards and wineries. When spring arrives, visitors eager to enjoy good vino will gather for a delicious Missouri vin de table, of which there are many varieties.

If they raise a glass to toast German immigrants Friedrich Münch and his brother Georg, it will be appropriate. In the 1850s, the grape-growing Münch brothers helped launch the Show-Me State’s winery business. Today, it is a $3.2 billion annual industry.

Annette Alden, director of marketing for the Missouri Wine & Grape Board in Jefferson City, says, “We credit Friedrich and Georg Muench with attracting many German immigrants who chose to make Missouri their home, growing vineyards, making great wine and helping to establish Missouri’s world-famous wine industry.”

Friedrich Münch helped hundreds of Germans who wanted to immigrate to Missouri make the trip and he influenced thousands of others to do the same. Why…?

Germany’s ruling aristocracy was corrupt in the 1830s; the German working class was ruthlessly oppressed. A German journalist named Gottfried Duden visited Missouri. His published reports promoted this region as an idyllic Vaterland (homeland), with natural resources along the Missouri River similar to Germany’s Rhineland.

Knowing all of that, Friedrich Münch co-founded the Giessen Emigration Society to transport German citizens across the Atlantic Ocean to Missouri and create a utopia. In 1834, Münch helped 500 German settlers relocate. Those who sailed on the ship Olbers arrived in New Orleans on June 2, 1834. Those who sailed on the ship Medora, arrived in Baltimore on July 24, 1834.  From there they traveled down the Ohio or up the Mississippi river to St. Louis, then wagon-trained through Jefferson County to destinations west or created farms in what would become Flamm City. More Germans arrived by the thousands in years ahead.

Allen Flamm, a local historian, says it’s no surprise that 38 percent of Arnold’s population has German roots, according to the U.S. Census, and German is the number one claimed ancestry in the state.

He says, “In 1836 my great grandfather Wilhelm Flamm arrived from the village of Merseburg, Germany to farm here and plant fruit orchards Almost everything around was German. Church schools taught in German. My grandfather learned reading, writing and arithmetic in German.  Today, some members of St. John’s Lutheran Church still speak German to each other. So did my parents when they didn’t want kids to understand what they were saying. The German influence is all around Arnold – from cornerstones in old buildings dedicated in German, to gravestone epitaphs honoring dearly departed.”

Missouri Life Magazine points out, “No other immigrant group has had a greater influence on Missouri than the Germans. They influence our agriculture, our arts, our sciences, and our beer. Their passionate antislavery position helped keep Missouri in the Union during the Civil War. At the time, more than half of all immigrant residents here were from German states.”

Blumenhof Winery in village of Dutzow in Missouri Rhineland

Friedrich Münch’s life was focused on positive change for German people. As a young student, he actively protested what he considered a cruel and chaotic German aristocracy and government structure. As an author, pamphleteer and Lutheran minister, he promoted goals to establish a “new and free German State in the great North American Republic.” Münch’s dream of a new German nation-state did not materialize in Missouri, but new German communities successfully were created near Arnold and elsewhere.

Münch guided new immigrants to the town of Dutzow 45 miles from Arnold on the north side of the Missouri River where he built a 120-acre farm and vineyards. Others settled in the town of Washington on the south side of the river, 35 miles from Arnold. Still others settled in Hermann, 70 miles west of Arnold where Stone Hill Winery was established – the biggest in Missouri. By the 1850s, both sides of the Missouri River in those regions were called the Missouri Rhineland. (See Missouri German Settlement Map)

Map image of Missouri German settlement patterns. University of Missouri Press (1)

In her treatise “German Settlement in Missouri,” author Carolyn L. Wright Whitton noted that new settlers wrote home describing a place with “plentiful land, few taxes, few regulations, individual freedom of choice, and opportunities to achieve prosperity with hard work.”

Friedrich Münch was hired by railroads to write booklets encouraging Germans to immigrate. These were published before and after the Civil War (1861-1865) in big U.S. cities and in Europe.  He became known as “Father Münch,” the pioneer of German immigration into Missouri.

A new trend called “chain migrations” began to occur from Germany to Missouri, to the eastern seaboard of the U.S., the California coast, the upper Midwest such as Wisconsin and the southwest, notably Texas.

“In  1832, more than 10,000 immigrants had arrived from Germany. By 1854, that number had jumped to nearly 200,000 immigrants,” according to the U.S. Library of Congress.

Friedrich Münch (1799-1881)

As a Lutheran minister, Münch  preached most Sundays in a log church to promote humanism and tolerance; he baptized and confirmed children, performed marriages, and held funerals, according to The Missouri Encyclopedia.

Using the pen name “Far West,” he wrote for German newspapers across the U.S. as an expert on cultivating grapevines for winemaking.  His publication titled School for American Grape Culture was widely read. In addition, Münch  wrote an “immigrant guidebook” about Missouri and he served for many years on the Missouri State Board of Immigration.

He was a Republican delegate at the 1860 convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. A former Democrat, Münch ran for political office on Missouri’s Republican statewide ticket. In 1862 he was elected to a four­-year term in the state senate. Fervently anti-slavery, Münch’s  political cause was “radical emancipation for people of color.”

Friedrich Münch died on his Dutzow farm December 15, 1881, at age 82. He left his wife, six children, thirty-three grandchildren, and eight great-­grandchildren. One of his sons serving in the Union Army died in the Civil War Battle of Wilson’s Creek, near Springfield, in 1861. Friedrich’s brother Georg Münch had moved to Augusta, Missouri, where he founded Mount Pleasant Winery in 1859. Georg died in 1879.

Mount Pleasant Winery was founded in 1859 by Georg Münch

Missouri today has more than 425 grape growers and 130 wineries that sell 1.6 million gallons of wine annually to more than 875,700 tourists. Missouri vintners produce more than 40 different types of wine. The industry’s 28,000 employees earn about $1 billion in annual wages generating $ 218.5 million in federal taxes every year. Not all of Missouri wine is German. Villa Antonio is a beautiful Italian winery just south of Arnold in Hillsboro. The website https://mo-germans.com/ Is an excellent source of Missouri German history, events and useful programs. Glückliches Leben für Sie! (Happy Life to You!)

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold

Who Named the Meramec River?

Arnold’s first highway for trading and industrial shipping is the Meramec River. It has been crucial for life support since prehistoric times, and one of Missouri’s greatest recreational resources for more than 150 years.

Origin of the name Meramec is full of contradictions. Some say it means “ugly fish” or “catfish.” Some pioneers called it “The River of Death.” Its name is attributed to various Native American Indian tribes and, also, to early Jesuit missionaries and even British cartographers.

According to author H. R. Schoolcraft in his book “A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri,” the “Miaramigoua River” – known today as the Meramec — was discovered by a French Jesuit priest, Father Jacques Gravier, on his voyage down the Mississippi in 1699.

Missouria Indian in traditional Canoe

Father Gravier put into French spelling the sound that Native American Indians called the river. One of those was “Miaramigoua,” which Father Gravier’s journal showed he translated as “the river of ugly fish.”

Michael Mccafferty, author and Algonquian linguist, says the river’s name appears in a dictionary produced by 18^th century Jesuit missionary Antoine-Robert Le Boullenger, and that, in the Miami-Illinois Native American language, the name is “Myaarameekwa.” In Algonquian dialect, “Myaara” means ‘ugly’ and “meekwa” means ‘fish’.

Over the centuries, English speakers mutilated river names that French explorers transcribed. Translated into English, some names supposedly meant “Water of the Bitter Spring,” perhaps due to high sulfur content, or “Waters of Death” due to drownings. Early maps labeled the river “Maramig” and “Mirameg.” Its pronunciation became Marameg, and then finally Meramec, sometimes spelled as Maramec.

Fun Times

I wonder how many scholarly experts have climbed aboard an inflated inner tube or a canoe with a rope attached to a cooler full of supplies to spend a day – or weekend – floating merrily, merrily, merrily downstream with friends or family members?

View toward Arnold from confluence of Meramec and Mississippi rivers. Copyright Jo Schaper. Used with permission.

Dozens of different campgrounds, canoe liveries and rural resorts dot Meramec shorelines, especially along the Upper Meramec away from big communities. They attract thousands of fun seekers every year (although pandemic numbers may vary).

The term “downstream” for the Meramec means both north and south because with its twists and turns the river flows both ways and, direction wise, west-east, too. See map  https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/2021-12/200_2021_MeramecRiver.pdf .

Dan Drees of the Sierra Club-Missouri Chapter, wrote, “The headwaters of the Meramec River begin in the Ozarks near Salem, traveling 228 miles to join the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. The Meramec’s spring-fed waters have provided a summer haven for river recreation…the Meramec is also a haven for the greatest variety of aquatic life in the Midwest, giving observant explorers constant opportunities to discover the wealth of aquatic life it shelters.”

The Meramec drains 3,980 square miles in its journey to the Mississippi River near Arnold’s Flamm City Park. Native Americans living by the Meramec at various times represented some 20 different tribes including Delaware, Shawnee, Fox, Sauk, Kickapoo, Otoe-Missouria, and the fierce Osage. Some of those native peoples were subsets of Algonquin families that originated in Canada. Many died out after Europeans populated the colonies, or the U.S. government moved them to other states starting in the 1830s.

Ancient evidence of Native American tribes living near the Meramec ranges from flint digging tools and arrowheads, to shards of fabric, pottery, and teeth, to ancient graves uncovered by archeologists.

Moody Waters

Pacific resident Jo Schaper is an author, historian, poet, and secretary of the Meramec River Recreation Association. Its members include government officials, environmentalists, trail groups, and citizens promoting Meramec River activities with careful environmental stewardship. (https://www.facebook.com/MeramecRRA/).

Washing cars in Meramec River, circa 1920.

“The Meramec can be very destructive,” Schaper asserts. “It can be very beautiful. It has many moods.”

“The basin is blessed with springs, caves, and mineral resources, amongst them lead, zinc, iron, ‘glass sand,’ sandstone, limestone, and dolomite… The river flows between spectacular bluffs in many areas,” she says.

About 1820, a prospector named Thomas James discovered iron ore in Phelps County and built the Maramec Iron Works. “Such industries established upstream helped open up the river valley to settlement,” Schaper says. “The Meramec became a shipping route for pig iron, timber, and other goods on flatboats and shallow draft steamboats. Small towns arose settled by Germans, Scottish, Irish, English farmers, and businessmen, as well as settlers from Appalachia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.”

“The lower Meramec developed an extensive truck garden and farmer’s market trade with St. Louis merchants…River bottom farmers planted wheat, corn, and soybeans. The ‘glass sand’ industry grew, as did sand and gravel extraction for projects…shipped to rail points by barge, then by rail to places beyond.”

History aside, among fun-minded people today the Meramec River may be best known for camping, canoeing, cave exploring, fishing, hiking, kayaking, orienting, float trips, and environmental protectionism.

Towns with Meramec River access, and varying facilities, include Bourbon, Cuba, Eureka, Leasburg, Kirkwood, Pacific, St. James, Steelville, Sullivan, Valley Park and Arnold. In rainy seasons, each may have to deal with high water or dangerous floods.

Trout fishing in Missouri image copyright Missouri Outdoors Meramec Springs Trout Park.

Maramec Spring Park (alternative spelling) about 85 miles from Arnold in St. James, is one of many magnets for rainbow trout fishing, camping and recreation. It pumps 100 million gallons of fresh water a day, bubbling up from 350 feet below ground. The park is open all year. Missouri trout season is March 1-October 31. Camping season is February 28-October 30.  Catch and Release fishing is November-February. Visit http://www.maramecspringpark.com/

Bennett Spring State Park is another popular destination for camping, rainbow trout fishing, and hiking because of its powerful natural spring, convenient river access and central location near Lebanon. See https://mostateparks.com/park/bennett-spring-state-park.

Father and Son at Meramec Spring Park. Copyright Meramec Spring Park.

The Meramec is well known for rainbow trout, yet the river also has healthy populations of large- and smallmouth bass, perch, and catfish. On Facebook you’ll find the Lower Meramec Bass Club and Upper Meramec Bass Club. Based in Arnold, the Lower Meramec Bass Club hosts a tournament every Tuesday night, water depth permitting.

Trey Harpel has fished the lower Meramec for 15 years by launching his boat from Arnold’s Flamm City Park. He is a consultant for the Omega Custom Tackle company of Festus. ( https://omegacustomtackle.com/ ). “These days I go for bass at least once or twice a week, depending on how high the water is,” he says.  “I have the best luck fishing where small creeks enter the river. The Meramec also has white bass, a hybrid fish that can be big.” Harpel’s own fishing reel service and repair business serves professional fishermen and sportsmen.

Clean Up

Good times on the Meramec River come at a price: Garbage, water pollution, junk, and damaged habitats. The not-for-profit Nature Conservancy and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources are extremely concerned about the Meramec River’s health and welfare now and in the future.

Their studies show that the Meramec has been historically threatened by wastewater discharges, livestock mismanagement, mining slag runoff, stream bank erosion, urban and suburban development, sediment buildup, garbage, and pollution resulting in poor water quality and spoiled wildlife habitats.  (https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/the-meramec-river)

The Nature Conservancy-Missouri Chapter worked with 29 different ecological groups to produce a Meramec River Conservation Action Plan as a blueprint for concerned organizations to use as a guide to help resolve the situation. https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/meramec-river-conservation-action-plan.pdf. Projects such as the Growing a Healthy Meramec Project are having positive conservation impacts.

Brian Waldrop, Missouri Stream Team.

If you talk with Brian Waldrop, you may think he eats, sleeps and dreams about saving the Meramec River from pollution while preserving its natural beauty. You wouldn’t be far wrong because, Waldrop says, “It’s a way of life.”

Waldrop is an Arnold native who oversees eleven counties and the city of St. Louis as the St. Louis and Southeast Regional Stream Team Assistant for the Missouri Department of Conservation. “If we see a Clean Stream problem, we go there to work with local ‘clean streamers’ to manage river clean-ups, conduct water quality monitoring, and manage other initiatives,” he says

To see Waldrop and other ‘Clean Steamers’ salvaging a 500-pound metal buoy at Cora Island near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers on January 16, 2022, click here https://www.facebook.com/arnoldstreamteam211. This video is an example of what Arnold Stream Team 211 volunteers set out to accomplish almost every month.

One of thousands on junked tires pulled from Meramec River. Copyright Arnold Stream Team 211.

“The Stream Team is a group of volunteers dedicated to cleaning up the Meramec River and its tributaries, and anywhere else we’re needed!” says Waldrop. He was hired by Missouri’s Department of Conservation in 1993 to help organize Arnold Stream Team 211 after floods in the 1990s left tons of garbage, junk, trashed mobile homes, broken road signs, thousands of old tires and other rubbish in the Meramec River Basin.

Saturday, March 5, 2022, is the Stream Team’s Annual Wintertime Cleanup, a day of hard work, volunteer achievement and fellowship. To help, sign in that day at 8:00 am at Arnold City Park for a cleaning assignment, t-shirt, gloves, and garbage bags. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. When Waltrop says “We’re having a cleanup” he means that volunteers, in one day, may salvage 500 old tires, 150 rusty barrels, a few sunken old boats, and tons of junk.

“At river cleanups, you’ll see Arnold Stream Team 211 with our boats, kayaks, canoes, wrenches, saws and pulleys to capture as much rubbish as we can,” he says. “Almost any weekend, you’ll find volunteers on the Meramec, chipping away at the watershed’s massive amount of trash.”

Jo Schaper observes, “The Meramec is considered a recreational river all the way to its confluence with the Mississippi, and though it is unlikely the lower Meramec will ever return to its pristine beauty, we can still strive to preserve, restore, and cherish what we have.”

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold

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