The original item was published from January 4, 2018 4:48 PM to January 5, 2018 4:54 PM
Have you driven around St. Charles County and wondered how various streams, towns, streets
The original item was published from January 4, 2018 4:48 PM to January 5, 2018 4:54 PM
Have you driven around St. Charles County and wondered how various streams, towns, streets and roads got their names? Each new group of settlers - French, American and German - lent their names in their own time.
An Osage war party pursued a band of Sioux down the Missouri River in canoes. The Sioux made a turn in the river and, now shielded from the Osage' view, pulled their canoes from the water and hid along the river bank until the Osage had passed. They then carried their canoes across the two-mile strip of land and put into the Mississippi River at a point that gained them 20 miles on their pursuers and guaranteed their escape. Francois Lesieur founded a village on the site in 1799 that became known as Portage des Sioux, and one of its streets is named Lesieur.
French-speaking settlers in what later became St. Charles County relied on local waterways to hunt and fish. Not surprisingly, many of our water resources have names like Belleau, Blanchette, Cuivre, Dardenne, Femme Osage, Peruque, Gillette, Teuque, Marais Croche and Marais Temps Claire. Rose Phil