St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 85

1 nii'iiii in if i.itii i ilriiilllliliiS i onn Hfli.i!r:.iiniii!!T.'ilii.T i. LltfHifll'H'IIUIMIIlilillitil. I. in 13 fiiiiii I Hit Ulll zzJ Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Kansas, cTMssissippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, o4rizona and New o7Vlexicf STANDING out upon a background of Gold and Blood and Faith, the Conqueror, ths Pioneer and the Missionary are principal figures in the thrilling story of the First Christmas in each State cf the Southwest. It is a story of romance and adventure, of daring courage, of knightly men vnd courtly women almost unsurpassed in literature as a great region's baptism.

It is shot through from end to end with the greatest moral lessons and presents a picture of brilliant hues winch will become the brighter with the passing years. The follow-in-; information has now been gathered too-other for the first tiniP: of 1834-5 there. That wlntT was one of great severity. The corn of the last season had been away by an unparalleled rise of the Arkansas Hiver. ms -rmnvfx- As early bs 1526 Don Jos de Vasconcellos erosaed the center of Arizona toward the Great Canyon, and the country was Bubsequently visited by other Spanish explorers.

These early Spaniard have mute witnesses their occupation In the ruins of houses and fortifications found In Arizona. They set up their peculiar civilization, tempered by concessions to the natives, brought their priests from Spain. Hero th cross was early raised, and the Christmas mass was said In the presence of the wondering1 natives. NEJfli 7VVEXICO. SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, Is thouRht to bo th oldest settled town In the t'nlted State.

It 1m claimed that It was an Indian pueblo when the Spaniards came upon It In their explorations In 1.5I2. St. Augustine. was founded In 155, and Is certainly the oldest town on the Atlantic Coast However, San Francisco de la Santa Pe was founded as a Spanish settlement prior to 110. Th first Immigration tov New Mexico was under Don Juan de Onate about 107.

Santa Fo soon becamn thf capital of the province and Vcadlnff town. With these early settlers came the zealous missionaries and monks who labored to convert the natlvo tribes. They were anxious for the good will of trios first citizens of New Mexico, and evidences of hospitality and kindness were displayed by both. Tt was with pence and goot-w'll that the first Christian celebration of December Kth was made In iNew Mexico. The new-comers learned to make adobe houses from the natives, and what seemed a charming manner of life was developed, a growth of the old upon the new.

7V-CISSICSI JFI, IN tho fall of lfiOS two frieteH, ftnd I Marin, Commanded by d'lbcrvlllo. Mulled from ichefo: K.h.ioc, for the Mississippi country. Tliry 1 indod near what beentin Biloxl, in Marctr-of l'ttf. IV Soo ami ht i. men had wandered through -sippl nearly BK years nefore, but they had left in permanent monument to their trials and sufferings.

What th Spaniards had failed to the Frenchman aceoni-plished. for these two -boat loads of pettier wcrl th real founder!" Of Misslnsln-I, indeed of all the Gulf region of the province of Louisiana. It was or December 7 of that year I'M Ihnt d'lber-vlllo and de Sugere, with two more frigates, arrived for a second time at Blloxl. In the summer of 1704 a. ship arrived bringing four Sifters of Charity and 23 young gills.

Tlie latter were all married soon after their arrival. The flrt white child born In the colony was named Claude Jousset. the son of a Canadian trnder. born In The first Christmas of MWsslfrd was celebrated li that year of ir.99, but a bettor and brighter one was commemorated In 171, after more homes and a greater degree of comfort had been established. TENNESSEE.

WATAVGA. in East nnessee, was th first home of white families in what afterwards became a county of North Carolina, and still later, the State of Tennessee. This settlement antedated that of Kentucky, for the first homes were established thtr In' 179. It v.ns the same movement of the frontiersmen and their families westward the same Impulse to build new homes, no matter what danger. It was on F.oone's Creek, a branch of the Watauga, that Capt.

William Rtan established his cabin home In the early part of and there was hern Russell the first white child la Tennessee. Game was there In abundance along the Watauga, and Rean and his neighbors th Carolina were near enough to the Itolston settlements to obtain grain with which to make bread. So long as the men could noM and fire th. ir unerring bullets, what Other nee! they' Food was theirs, though coarse: they were living in a beautiful valley, and their futme looked bright. Their lm'in neighbor bad withdrawn from the That Christmas of 17H9 was a merry one In th Watauga settlements.

LOUlSmNH. JOHN LAW'S Mississippi bubble hf not bum when (i-Mer oi of the Ki Province of Louisiana, founded New in 1718 In 17 the seat of government leae.v -I from Hdoxl to the straggling settlement by th side of the great river. There were lo Inhabitant. lv thin time, with mission, military post and some honored palisade huts, with rude Kb- luri of size r-r church, hospital and Government e. There was no lack of food on that Art in what Is now the State of I.ulslann.

company-s warehouses held ample supplh-s I Liana was at the height of Its r-t -boon, of the early eighteenth cntu.y, and th- France had not yet b-en ,1 clired failure. ai.J fugitives. The actual home life in New dhl until the winter of lTJJ-. when th gilds came under the protection of the r-ulln. nun- to tie sncn In marria.e the -re Mea of thelr guard'an-.

A ship 1 1 beanng this precious 1 ord. th sore maidens from the ivarih -m! 1 Thee girls were set in the rank 1 side There was a trunk fur earn maiden a maid' for ch trunk, and both and "runt th gift of the King of th, worthy of the honor of tU. Wueen Cty of Nc. Or. leans.

MISSOURI, Missouri tn hi istmas in a home os- tahlish-d within the present limits of tho State was honored in the little house of fiai.ti.ste Jioae, at Sto. Genevieve. French and Spanish rxpMrers had passed throuth the State lffore 17-. when T.a himself and his family on tlx- west bank of the Mississippi, across fr.en Ko.p1- askia. It remained f.

a fw Pr. families to establish th? first nt PeCterteru in Missouri. Ijx huilt a oa ti Yvds on the jfn.t rise of the Mississippi. I 11 wa" In fi--li a th-t IY Missouri c'Wraf Its r-vt Christmas. Pr-rhup's in the fr.reno naptiste ard is an 1 children went across the river to KaskasUia to hear mass.

These early French folk wre devout. Com ins tack in the short winter afternoon the Ia Roses chut themselves in to their C'rristmaa dinner of coarse but wholesome far-. Fftecn years before Father Charlevoix had predicted that Kaskaskia would become- the granary of the West. Th -re would be, then, plenty of bread for this first Chr'; i-mas dinner, and La n- must have been a bohl and successful hunter else- be would not have been a great State's pioneer rer-rd-rt. C'KX nml coicn wcr, staple prod-efs of Ar-Kansas the early days in that Slate.

The earliest whites Arkansas w-r-r r' and who traversed the plan's and rivers and explored the of what was th-n a part of the province Louisiana. -As in Missouri, the French wer the earliest 8or. en, of Arkansas. Monsieur Bougie. a Canadian bv birth.

was one. of the settlers at the Arkansas Post. Doubtless it, va Ida son who was En-slgn In the Arkansas battalion, of the Missouri' troops raised for defense of this region In the War In 1M8 Monsieur Bougie was 70 years old, and he had lived for many years in what afterward became the Territory and then the State Arkansas No doubt he gladly sent his son to the war of defense. There were three companies of the Arkansas Battalion: Daniel Mooney. Captain of the First-James Scull." Captain of the Second, with Charles Bougie, Ensign, and Blassingham H.

McFarland Captain of the Third. The first Christmas in Arkansas wis commemorated In French Canadian style by the Bougys. TEXHS. PERMANENT settlement in Texas was first made at San Antonio, and it was here in 1730 that the first European families commemorated Christmas. and the establishment of Christian homes in the great State or Texas in Antonio was founded in 1718, ardl in 1V a roval decree had provided that four hundred families from the Canary Islands i -hould be brought to Texas as settlers.

But it was not until eight years later that the first ten or twelve Spanish families actuary settled in the historic town. The mission of San Antonio de Valero was in charge of Padre Olivares. a brave and devoted priest who had made many long journevs into the vast Texan region. It was to his little mission church that the earliest settlers went to pay their devotions and to worship the Child who was born on Christmas Pay. It was a Mlssourian who arranged to take the first English-speaking: colony into Texas.

Moses did not live, to carry out Ids but l.is son, Stephen F. Austin, took The Missouri' settlers to Texas In 1KC1. where. they settled on tne 1 er Brazos. Their first Christmas was one of fcufferlng.

IOlrtZP-. THE hunter, the trapp -r and th vd-oeml wo-k-er found In Town oar'y 'a fl-ld activity. It war- -r 'a cr.it-iry at Ju'l- Pu'-ui- hrP, t'li- ojTi rf'-f-'r. i-t. ,4 ft 1 white setth-r cf in-'- li 1 t'e Aii.er'ean se- of f-- rd.

tint after tlie B'a. 1'nvk war of homes enme to rpab.Ms'ied in thou.h C'e'. fleor-e Piivrp.i-t a settlement on islT-il t- tl.rt brais his name Tm 1 irt th-r- --ere two cli'nis made now occvpicl by the c'ty of Davenport. The actual homf.maklnu bornn, however, In 1S33, and It' was on Dec. 25 of that year that tho first Christmas celehrntion in Towa was Riven.

A priest from Oalena vls'ted t' flace nd celebrated mass It nut un'il he' n-st scrinsr that other a were establish' d. The ChHstma of 1S35 was made by pome 20 fapiilles who had made homes for themselves. They had not to endure the hardships of p'oncers remote from centers of trade, for stnm-ho fro-n ft brought to them many cf the tVeii bixuritu of l'fe. ti was two weeks after the first Christmas ti nt hj pioneer ball of Iowa was Riven on the of January at the homo of A. Claire, tie first etUH-v.

Alcy forty couples were prta, nt, of frontiersmen. o. rs Island, Fort Armstrong arid residents oT pie infant city. ILLINOIS. THE French of Cahokia and Kaskaskia we- the first whites to honor the Christmas festival in Illinois.

The Jesuit missionaries ha 1 brought many Indians into the Church, am: doubtless celebrated many a Christmas mass at Fort St. Louis on the Illinois River and at Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Fort ChartreS. It was about 17(X that the first homes of Frenchmen were established in Illinois. These men wei a hardy and bold fellows, voyageurs from Canada, for tlie most part. In that tinie, 200 years and more a-jo.

the Christmas festival must have been simple indeed. Ad clothing and weapons, except the rude boi; and flint implements of the Indians, had to be brought from Canada at the expense of much labor. The vessels in use on the tabhs" of the families who ate their first Christmas dinner in Illinois were set with crude wooden trenchers, a few pewter spoons, and perhaps some Indinn pottery, while the cooking vessels wore iron pots. These early pioneers -were minip tried by those devoted priests of the Jesuit Order. Father James Gravier and Father Gabriel Marst, names to be remembered in Illinois history.

It was in 1778 that there was a considerable number of English-speaking persons to spend Christmas in Illinois, and these were the nun under Georv Rogers Clark who were to make their intrepid march the cruel winter to caotnre Vln-connes. The good priest, Father Pierre Gibault. by his 'personal efforts, arranged for the journey. Clark and his men spent the Christmas day of 1778 in comparative comfort at Kaskaskia. I IN I TZ IN 7a.

FliKXCH at Fort v.Pre V. Of Jri i In thai great movement 'rom Panada West and fiouth that resulted in the settle.n.-u of the upper Mississippi Indiana w'a'. of fin early settlement. Tt is Uow.n Francois Mo.gan.de Vinsenne was in nmand 'at ti. f-ost on the "Ouabaehr" in he and his iho d.usht-r of Plnhp Ka.k a ''1 to thcre- Which deed Has cord -1 I' Christmas, then of 17:15.

was spent by this brave Fr.nehi.uin. who was later killed by the Chi saws, with his wife and family at a place" whli subsequently -came to be an important ae' sm 1 Vinc-ennes wr.s not so far from Hetro't an I from Canada, as the settlement further west Tre' were comforts to bo found there on that i mat Christmas day which were unknown on Christinas 33 years before. INDIRN TERRITORY, RA DICKS with the' Indians, and the squatters on Indian lands were the first wi, memoraoze the Indian Terr! tory. The Indian country had great attractions for these bold mei who for pleasant country. memoratize Christmas in the Indw After ls.1 the squatt.r felt a gree of safety this region, for the first dragoons (the parent organization of the First V.

Cavalry) were ordered to Fort G.hs wntef OKLnHOTK. EN who traversed th- S-ta Fe trail were the earliest whites to winter in Oklahoma. This trade with Ve-JM before 0. The St. Vrains and Bents from St.

I.ouis had established themselves in this region, where they had famous trading fort, known aj Fort Bent, and which was visited by many of the traders and travelers through that region. This fort wa.s visited by Col. Philip St. George Cooke of the second dragoons in 1HI5. The post had been then established "or years.

There were Indians, French, Spanish and Americans within the palisades. It was by this heterogeneous group of people that the Christmas of the Southwest was celebrated. SPANIARDS under Coronado, looking for the fabled wealth of Cibo'a crossed the plains of Kansas in 1Mb He did not find the gold he sought, but he spent many months in Kansas and the priest of his party was the first celebrant of Christmas In the State, It was in the early part of the Nineteenth Century that Pike set up the American llag on the site of the Pawnee village, Sept. 23. 1SK.

and not many years thereafter the whites from Missouri, with Wstport.rnd Independence as their last outfitting places, passed through Kansas to Santa Fe. They made, the Santa Fe trail a road which was marked out by authority of Congress in 1S25. The first Christmas spent by Americans In Kansas homes was that of 1S27 at Fort tawen worth, which. had been established by the United States army. y.

ars this place was the great Western rendezvous for both traders and roops. KENTUCKY. HAHRODSTOWN. afterward called Oldtown, and then Ilarrodsburg. was the first settlement in Kentucky, in 1774.

Yet the real home-makers. American wives and daughters, did not ome to the blue-grass State until the following year The wives and daughters of Daniel ISoone Ind his romp.tnl.ms who settled at lioonesl.orough v.i'i! 177.1, and the wives and daughters of Hugh flary. Ku'hard Il-gan and Thomas I. nton. were "tb-" first white women at lUrrndsbur.

Teo Kentucky pioneers built forts and block p. with small log cabins ar By. Jhey had almost too busy in that spring or 1..5 In their building of houses and forts to clear the ground for a -op of grain. That first Kentucky Christmas was spent In tho nil it of hardships and worse. There was danger.

Indians attacked th little settlements from time time, and a strict watch was kept through those winter nights and through the short winter Jays. HRIZONTt. FORTT years after the discovery America by Odumbus Europeans bad penetrate-! what Is now Ariaona, for the Spaniards ba-1 found the valley of the Gila, and tlo.ucht I i.