Old Mines, Missouri
Encyclopedia
Old Mines is the name of both an unincorporated
community and the surrounding area in southeast Missouri
that were settled by French
colonists
who mined
for lead
from the early 18th century when the area was a part of the Illinois Country
of New France
. Descendants of the early settlers still inhabit the area, and through a combination of geographic and cultural isolation maintained their distinctive French culture well into the 20th century. As recently as the late 1980s there may have been a thousand native speakers of the region's Missouri French
dialect. This culturally distinct population has sometimes been referred to as "paw-paw French" and lives in an amorphous area in Washington
, Jefferson
, and St. Francois counties
roughly 15 miles either side of a line from Potosi
to De Soto
.
, an ore
of lead. Found first in surface deposits over a wide area, and now mined deep underground, the ore was known to the native Indians
of the region from whom it became known to early French explorers. Father Jaques Gravier noted in his journal in October 1700, the presence of rich lead ore twelve or thirteen leagues from the mouth of the "River Miaramigoua" (Meramec), that is 36 to 39 mi (57.9 to 62.8 km). At that time the Meramec tributary Big River
was considered part of the Meramec and often called the Little Meramec (French Petit Merrimac). The distance cited on the Meramec proper would not be in an especially mineralized region, but if taken to mean the Big River, it would lead to its headwaters and possibly refer to areas on the Mineral Fork or Old Mines Creek where some of the earliest mining took place.
Searching for silver
, which is sometimes found with lead ore, the French sent a series of ill-equipped mining expeditions into what is now Missouri. One was led by Jacques sieur de Lochon, a Parisian and a smelter, and another was led by sieur La Renaudière. Neither expedition produced much to show for their efforts, although Renaudière was able to smelt some poor-quality lead. In 1720 Philippe François Renault
arrived with professional miners. Renault found and successfully worked large quantities of lead on the "Merameg" in what is now the Old Mines region. Renault received a grant in 1723 for one and a half leagues along the Petit Merrimac and extending up the first tributary (la première branche) for six leagues for a total of 9 square leagues. The exact location of Renault's grant and mines is not known, but the "first branch" could be Fourche à Renault Creek, with the mines perhaps at Ebo, or it could be Old Mines Creek with the mines at Old Mines itself. Renault's mines were worked until the 1730s, were closed for some years, and reopened in 1743. Old Mines existed as a village of some sort by 1748 when it was listed as the residence of a coupled married at Fort de Chartres
, given as village des mines.
Discovery of Mine à Breton in the 1770s drained much of the effort from Old Mines, but as Old Mines was only 5 to 6 mi (8 to 9.7 km) to the north, it was close enough that some miners continued to live there while working Mine à Breton. Some of the miners' families moved back and forth between Old Mines and Mine à Breton. It is unclear whether Old Mines was continuously inhabited through the 1790s into the first years of the 19th century. There may have been disruptions due to raids by the Osage
, and there is record of a complaint that inhabitants were forced to abandon their homes due to pollution of Old Mines Creek by animal and mining waste. Nevertheless, there were enough inhabitants in 1797 for a petition to be made for an agricultural concession, a request that was not acted on but which may have helped forestall a later request for mining concession by the American Moses Austin
who had started larger-scale mining and refining at Mine à Breton.
and St. Louis who subsequently employed hired labor and slaves to mine ore at Old Mines. When news of the retrocession of Louisiana
from Spain
to France reached the area, both inhabitants and the absentee interests became more concerned about ownership. Until around the beginning of the 19th century there was little competition for land, and the French had maintained a casual attitude concerning details of land ownership.
A new petition was drafted in 1803 by both residents and remote operators. This time, with the help of the wealthy operators in St. Louis and Ste Genevieve, the petition was approved. Commandant François Vallé
, who had his agent collect signatures for the petition, perhaps as a favor for his friends in the cities, forwarded this petition to the lieutenant governor. Vallé himself wrote the 1803 petition, which was submitted as a single group request instead of dozens of individual requests. The participation of the locals lent legitimacy to the request, and the participation of knowledgeable and connected outsiders moved the request through the bureaucracy. Though interested in lead, the petition was made for land for agriculture in the amount of 400 arpents (338 acres) per family – French law granted free land only for farming. Lieutenant Governor Delassus granted the request on June 4, 1803, for 13,400 arpents (17.8 square miles).
The concession straddled Old Mines Creek, and in the rush to get the land surveyed and titled before the Americans took over following the Louisiana Purchase
, it was laid out into 31 long, narrow plots with a length equal to the full width of the concession. Ownership to individual plots was assigned through a lottery that had no relationship to where individuals had their cabins or worked the mines. The mines worked in common at the south end were held out of the subdivision, but there was no accommodation for a usual French village with streets, clustered homes, and a commons. Most of the French ignored the assignment of ownership and continued to live where they had, mostly in the village of Old Mines near the south of the concession, and at Racola near the center. Most had sold their lottery-assigned land within a year to outside speculators.
After the Americans acquired control of the area there was a scramble to certify land claims with the new administration, and much of the activity was fraudulent. It took years to sort through the competing claims. John Smith T, an entrepreneur rival to Moses Austin who lived at Bellfontaine and operated mines there and at Shibboleth, had bought some of the 400-arpent tracts at Old Mines and tried to claim more, thus clouding the ownership. But in 1833 the original concession was officially recognized to the benefit of the initial claimants.
The Old Mines concession persists today as one of the many colonial-era grants recognized by and superimposed on the regular township
grid of the American Public Land Survey System
, and the pattern of long, narrow plots is visible in aerial photography as found at 38.0401°N 90.759°W
Easily mined surface deposits of lead were depleted by the mid-19th century, though the state geologist reported small-scale surface mining and refining around Old Mines in 1867. When lead production escalated after the Civil War
with capital-intensive deeprock mining techniques, it did so in new areas east of Potosi and Mine a Breton, drawing new economic activity even further away from Old Mines.
In 1874 mining for "tiff", as barite
is called locally, began to replace lead digging in the Old Mines region. It could be extracted manually from near-surface deposits in small operations much as lead had been for generations. This provided the enclave the means to continue supporting itself while maintaining its unique way of life after the lead had been mined out. Men would dig tiff a couple days each week to support their families, with additional sustenance coming from home gardens. Eventually the wagon road that Moses Austin had built to haul ore to Herculaneum
, which passed through Old Mines, was replaced by a railroad which did not, and the area's isolation became deeper.
Cultural isolation preceded geographic isolation, however. The Americans who developed the local lead industry during the Spanish period had no use for the French except for their labor and their ore. Moses Austin never learned to speak French, and when he platted the town of Potosi for the seat of new Washington County, he excluded the French village of Mine à Breton and did not even align the streets of the two adjacent towns. The French resented the economic dominance of the Americans to whom they had to sell their ore, and unlike the situation in Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, there was no local wealthy French establishment to further their cause. When the Osage attacked in 1799 and 1802 and French did not help the Americans fight them off. When geographic isolation set in at about the time of the American Civil War
, the French population was already living in cultural isolation, bolstered by their own language, customs, and communities.
language and culture. This dialect had developed since the 17th century, when the upper Mississippi River Valley were part of the French colony of Upper Louisiana, also known as the Illinois Country
. It was once widely spoken in what is now Missouri and Illinois
, and became one of the three major forms of French to develop in what is now the United States, along with Louisiana French
and Acadian French
. However, it began to die out as the British and later the Americans began settling in the area.
Speakers of the dialect called themselves Créoles
. They were sometimes known as "paw-paw" French, a term used at least sometimes in self reference. The name has been described as a "fun-loving insult" referring to a French creole "so poor that he lived on pawpaw
in the summer and possum in the winter."
vocabulary with a Québécois
pronunciation. Another linguist, J.-M. Carrière, came to Old Mines in the 1930s and 1940s, finding around 600 French-speaking families there at the time. Carrière undertook a study of the dialect, recording 73 folk tales from local conteurs. Among other distinguishing features, he followed Miller in noting that Missouri French had been heavily influenced by English, with many English words and even entire idiomatic phrases borrowed or translated into the dialect.
Both linguists noted that French was dying out in Old Mines at the time of their studies. Miller reported that the children could not speak it, and the young people would not. Carrière said that the influx of English and greater connection with the outside world had undermined the dialect's base, and that young people were finding that speaking French was of no use to them outside of their homes. As late as the 1980s there were perhaps as many as a thousand speakers left, but they were mostly the older generation of age 60 and above. Today the language has all but died out as means of everyday domestic communication, and only a few elderly speakers are able to use it.
The distinctive type of home built by Missouri French was of a single storey with a broad roof sloping gradually into a roof for the gallery that ran along the broad side of the house, or all around for some of the wealthier French. The style is seen not just in old abodes, but it is still used as a common style in the area for new construction.
The French creole are predominately Catholic. They were originally served by a mission priest from Ste. Genevieve, and a log church was built in Old Mines in 1820. That was replaced by the brick St. Joachim parish church in 1831. Still standing and a center of community life, St. Joachim is three years older than St. Louis' Old Cathedral, making it the oldest standing church in Missouri.
into American culture. Paved state highways eroded the region's physical isolation in the 1920s - Missouri Route 21 runs from St. Louis through the center of the Old Mines region on its way to Potosi and beyond. Cultural isolation was also assailed by World War I
and, especially, World War II
with mandatory conscription
taking many young men and exposing them to the wider world. In the 1930s the prices offered for tiff tumbled, ending more than 200 years of subsistence based on small-scale mining.
Young men left for work in St. Louis and elsewhere. It became impractical for the archdiocese to maintain French-speaking priests for just one parish
, so the sacrament
s were given only in English. Compulsory education in broader-based, English-only schools became the norm.
Municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
community and the surrounding area in southeast Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
that were settled by French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
colonists
French colonization of the Americas
The French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued in the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America...
who mined
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
for lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
from the early 18th century when the area was a part of the Illinois Country
Illinois Country
The Illinois Country , also known as Upper Louisiana, was a region in what is now the Midwestern United States that was explored and settled by the French during the 17th and 18th centuries. The terms referred to the entire Upper Mississippi River watershed, though settlement was concentrated in...
of New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
. Descendants of the early settlers still inhabit the area, and through a combination of geographic and cultural isolation maintained their distinctive French culture well into the 20th century. As recently as the late 1980s there may have been a thousand native speakers of the region's Missouri French
Missouri French
Missouri French is a nearly extinct variety of the French language formerly spoken in the upper Mississippi River Valley in the Midwestern United States, particularly in eastern Missouri. Once spoken widely across the region known as the Illinois Country or Upper Louisiana, the dialect is now...
dialect. This culturally distinct population has sometimes been referred to as "paw-paw French" and lives in an amorphous area in Washington
Washington County, Missouri
Washington County is a county located in East Central Missouri in the United States. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the county's population was 25,195. The largest city and county seat is Potosi...
, Jefferson
Jefferson County, Missouri
Jefferson County is a county located in East Central Missouri in the United States. The county was included as the mean center of U.S. population in 1980. It is the sixth most-populous county in Missouri. Census 2010 put the population at 218,733 Its county seat is Hillsboro. The county was...
, and St. Francois counties
County (United States)
In the United States, a county is a geographic subdivision of a state , usually assigned some governmental authority. The term "county" is used in 48 of the 50 states; Louisiana is divided into parishes and Alaska into boroughs. Parishes and boroughs are called "county-equivalents" by the U.S...
roughly 15 miles either side of a line from Potosi
Potosi, Missouri
Potosi is a city in Washington County, Missouri, United States. Potosi is about 10 miles north of Belgrade. The estimated population in July 2008 was 2,698. It was 2,662 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Washington County...
to De Soto
De Soto, Missouri
De Soto is a city in Jefferson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 6,477 at the estimated 2008 census. The Van Metre family were first to settle in 1803 .The town was organized in 1857 and is named for the explorer Hernando De Soto, who claimed the Louisiana Territory for Spain. ...
.
Early history
The southeast Missouri lead district is the location of the earth's greatest known concentration of galenaGalena
Galena is the natural mineral form of lead sulfide. It is the most important lead ore mineral.Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system often showing octahedral forms...
, an ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
of lead. Found first in surface deposits over a wide area, and now mined deep underground, the ore was known to the native Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
of the region from whom it became known to early French explorers. Father Jaques Gravier noted in his journal in October 1700, the presence of rich lead ore twelve or thirteen leagues from the mouth of the "River Miaramigoua" (Meramec), that is 36 to 39 mi (57.9 to 62.8 km). At that time the Meramec tributary Big River
Big River (Missouri)
The Big River is a tributary of the Meramec River in east-central Missouri. The river rises in western Iron County, near the summit of Johnson Mountain and the locale of Enough; it flows through Washington County, Saint Francois County, and Jefferson County...
was considered part of the Meramec and often called the Little Meramec (French Petit Merrimac). The distance cited on the Meramec proper would not be in an especially mineralized region, but if taken to mean the Big River, it would lead to its headwaters and possibly refer to areas on the Mineral Fork or Old Mines Creek where some of the earliest mining took place.
Searching for silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, which is sometimes found with lead ore, the French sent a series of ill-equipped mining expeditions into what is now Missouri. One was led by Jacques sieur de Lochon, a Parisian and a smelter, and another was led by sieur La Renaudière. Neither expedition produced much to show for their efforts, although Renaudière was able to smelt some poor-quality lead. In 1720 Philippe François Renault
Philip Francois Renault
Philip Francois Renault , a French explorer and favorite courtier of King Louis XV, left his native Picardy in 1719 for the Illinois Country. He was to lead efforts to develop mining in the Illinois Country. He was more successful with his concession of land fronting the Mississippi River on which...
arrived with professional miners. Renault found and successfully worked large quantities of lead on the "Merameg" in what is now the Old Mines region. Renault received a grant in 1723 for one and a half leagues along the Petit Merrimac and extending up the first tributary (la première branche) for six leagues for a total of 9 square leagues. The exact location of Renault's grant and mines is not known, but the "first branch" could be Fourche à Renault Creek, with the mines perhaps at Ebo, or it could be Old Mines Creek with the mines at Old Mines itself. Renault's mines were worked until the 1730s, were closed for some years, and reopened in 1743. Old Mines existed as a village of some sort by 1748 when it was listed as the residence of a coupled married at Fort de Chartres
Fort de Chartres
Fort de Chartres was a French fortification first built in 1720 on the east bank of the Mississippi River in present-day Illinois. The Fort de Chartres name was also applied to the two successive fortifications built nearby during the 18th century in the era of French colonial control over...
, given as village des mines.
Discovery of Mine à Breton in the 1770s drained much of the effort from Old Mines, but as Old Mines was only 5 to 6 mi (8 to 9.7 km) to the north, it was close enough that some miners continued to live there while working Mine à Breton. Some of the miners' families moved back and forth between Old Mines and Mine à Breton. It is unclear whether Old Mines was continuously inhabited through the 1790s into the first years of the 19th century. There may have been disruptions due to raids by the Osage
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
, and there is record of a complaint that inhabitants were forced to abandon their homes due to pollution of Old Mines Creek by animal and mining waste. Nevertheless, there were enough inhabitants in 1797 for a petition to be made for an agricultural concession, a request that was not acted on but which may have helped forestall a later request for mining concession by the American Moses Austin
Moses Austin
Moses Austin played a large part in the development of the American lead industry and is the father of Stephen F. Austin, a leading American settler of Texas. He was the first to be allowed to gather Anglo Americans for settlement in Spanish Texas...
who had started larger-scale mining and refining at Mine à Breton.
Land concessions and titles
Austin's success at Mine à Breton sparked increased attention from interests in Ste. GenevieveSte. Genevieve, Missouri
Ste. Genevieve is a city in and the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, United States. The population was 11,654 at the 2000 census...
and St. Louis who subsequently employed hired labor and slaves to mine ore at Old Mines. When news of the retrocession of Louisiana
Louisiana (New Spain)
Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1764 to 1803 that represented territory west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans...
from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
to France reached the area, both inhabitants and the absentee interests became more concerned about ownership. Until around the beginning of the 19th century there was little competition for land, and the French had maintained a casual attitude concerning details of land ownership.
A new petition was drafted in 1803 by both residents and remote operators. This time, with the help of the wealthy operators in St. Louis and Ste Genevieve, the petition was approved. Commandant François Vallé
François Vallé
François Vallé was a French Canadian who immigrated to Upper Louisiana of New France sometime in the early 1740s. Beginning as a laborer of no means, he engaged in agriculture, lead mining, and trade with Indians and became the richest man in Upper Louisiana.- References :...
, who had his agent collect signatures for the petition, perhaps as a favor for his friends in the cities, forwarded this petition to the lieutenant governor. Vallé himself wrote the 1803 petition, which was submitted as a single group request instead of dozens of individual requests. The participation of the locals lent legitimacy to the request, and the participation of knowledgeable and connected outsiders moved the request through the bureaucracy. Though interested in lead, the petition was made for land for agriculture in the amount of 400 arpents (338 acres) per family – French law granted free land only for farming. Lieutenant Governor Delassus granted the request on June 4, 1803, for 13,400 arpents (17.8 square miles).
The concession straddled Old Mines Creek, and in the rush to get the land surveyed and titled before the Americans took over following the Louisiana Purchase
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
, it was laid out into 31 long, narrow plots with a length equal to the full width of the concession. Ownership to individual plots was assigned through a lottery that had no relationship to where individuals had their cabins or worked the mines. The mines worked in common at the south end were held out of the subdivision, but there was no accommodation for a usual French village with streets, clustered homes, and a commons. Most of the French ignored the assignment of ownership and continued to live where they had, mostly in the village of Old Mines near the south of the concession, and at Racola near the center. Most had sold their lottery-assigned land within a year to outside speculators.
After the Americans acquired control of the area there was a scramble to certify land claims with the new administration, and much of the activity was fraudulent. It took years to sort through the competing claims. John Smith T, an entrepreneur rival to Moses Austin who lived at Bellfontaine and operated mines there and at Shibboleth, had bought some of the 400-arpent tracts at Old Mines and tried to claim more, thus clouding the ownership. But in 1833 the original concession was officially recognized to the benefit of the initial claimants.
The Old Mines concession persists today as one of the many colonial-era grants recognized by and superimposed on the regular township
Survey township
Survey township, sometimes called Congressional township, as used by the United States Public Land Survey System, refers to a square unit of land, that is nominally six miles on a side...
grid of the American Public Land Survey System
Public Land Survey System
The Public Land Survey System is a method used in the United States to survey and identify land parcels, particularly for titles and deeds of rural, wild or undeveloped land. Its basic units of area are the township and section. It is sometimes referred to as the rectangular survey system,...
, and the pattern of long, narrow plots is visible in aerial photography as found at 38.0401°N 90.759°W
Isolation
Though most of the lots in the Old Mines concession were bought by outsiders, those were speculators who had no permanent interest in the area, so the French continued to dig for lead when and where they wanted, as they always had, with no interference. Meanwhile, the area and the Missouri territory in general were being overrun by newly-arrived Americans. The area had been sparsely settled by the French, and by 1820 Missouri had been thoroughly Americanized with only isolated pockets of French culture surviving at Ste. Genevieve and Old Mines. French culture survived in Ste. Genevieve for a while because of its relatively large French population, some of it wealthy, but being a center of commerce it attracted its share of newcomers and eventually became more American. But few of the Americans seeking farmland were attracted to the Old Mines region with its thin, flinty soil.Easily mined surface deposits of lead were depleted by the mid-19th century, though the state geologist reported small-scale surface mining and refining around Old Mines in 1867. When lead production escalated after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
with capital-intensive deeprock mining techniques, it did so in new areas east of Potosi and Mine a Breton, drawing new economic activity even further away from Old Mines.
In 1874 mining for "tiff", as barite
Barite
Baryte, or barite, is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate. The baryte group consists of baryte, celestine, anglesite and anhydrite. Baryte itself is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of barium...
is called locally, began to replace lead digging in the Old Mines region. It could be extracted manually from near-surface deposits in small operations much as lead had been for generations. This provided the enclave the means to continue supporting itself while maintaining its unique way of life after the lead had been mined out. Men would dig tiff a couple days each week to support their families, with additional sustenance coming from home gardens. Eventually the wagon road that Moses Austin had built to haul ore to Herculaneum
Herculaneum, Missouri
Herculaneum is a city in Jefferson County, Missouri, United States. The population estimate in 2008 was 3,582. It was 2,805 at the 2000 census. The City of Herculaneum was the first county seat of Jefferson County from January 1, 1819 to 1839. The city celebrated its Bicentennial throughout the...
, which passed through Old Mines, was replaced by a railroad which did not, and the area's isolation became deeper.
Cultural isolation preceded geographic isolation, however. The Americans who developed the local lead industry during the Spanish period had no use for the French except for their labor and their ore. Moses Austin never learned to speak French, and when he platted the town of Potosi for the seat of new Washington County, he excluded the French village of Mine à Breton and did not even align the streets of the two adjacent towns. The French resented the economic dominance of the Americans to whom they had to sell their ore, and unlike the situation in Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, there was no local wealthy French establishment to further their cause. When the Osage attacked in 1799 and 1802 and French did not help the Americans fight them off. When geographic isolation set in at about the time of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the French population was already living in cultural isolation, bolstered by their own language, customs, and communities.
Missouri French
In its isolation the Old Mines area became a center of Missouri FrenchMissouri French
Missouri French is a nearly extinct variety of the French language formerly spoken in the upper Mississippi River Valley in the Midwestern United States, particularly in eastern Missouri. Once spoken widely across the region known as the Illinois Country or Upper Louisiana, the dialect is now...
language and culture. This dialect had developed since the 17th century, when the upper Mississippi River Valley were part of the French colony of Upper Louisiana, also known as the Illinois Country
Illinois Country
The Illinois Country , also known as Upper Louisiana, was a region in what is now the Midwestern United States that was explored and settled by the French during the 17th and 18th centuries. The terms referred to the entire Upper Mississippi River watershed, though settlement was concentrated in...
. It was once widely spoken in what is now Missouri and Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and became one of the three major forms of French to develop in what is now the United States, along with Louisiana French
Louisiana French
Louisiana French is the regional variety of the French language spoken throughout contemporary Louisiana in the south-eastern USA by individuals who today identify ethno-racially as Creole, French Creole, Spanish Creole, Mississippi Creole, Alabama Creole, Texas Creole, California Creole,...
and Acadian French
Acadian French
Acadian French , is a regionalized dialect of Canadian French. It is spoken by the francophone population of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by small minorities in areas in the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, by small groups of francophones in Prince Edward Island, in several tiny pockets...
. However, it began to die out as the British and later the Americans began settling in the area.
Speakers of the dialect called themselves Créoles
Creole peoples
The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
. They were sometimes known as "paw-paw" French, a term used at least sometimes in self reference. The name has been described as a "fun-loving insult" referring to a French creole "so poor that he lived on pawpaw
Asimina triloba
Asimina triloba, the pawpaw, paw paw, paw-paw, or common pawpaw, is a species of Asimina in the same plant family as the custard-apple, cherimoya, sweetsop, ylang-ylang and soursop...
in the summer and possum in the winter."
Language
By the 20th century, Old Mines was the only area of Missouri where Missouri French remained widely spoken. Linguists began studying the dialect at this time. American professor of French W. M. Miller made investigations in the area in the late 1920s, and reported that the local French dialect was an entirely spoken language. Most of the people were illiterate—few could read and write English at the time, and very few, if any, had ever seen French written. Miller also reported incursions of English into French sentences ("Anyhow, je ne sais pas."), and English words adapted to modern items for which the locals' French forebears had left no names ("un can de maiz"). Nevertheless, the impression was that the spoken French was no less grammatical than that spoken by peasants of similar means in areas of France. The language has been described as having a CajunCajun French
Cajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in Louisiana, specifically in the southern and southwestern parishes....
vocabulary with a Québécois
Quebec French
Quebec French , or Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Quebec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government....
pronunciation. Another linguist, J.-M. Carrière, came to Old Mines in the 1930s and 1940s, finding around 600 French-speaking families there at the time. Carrière undertook a study of the dialect, recording 73 folk tales from local conteurs. Among other distinguishing features, he followed Miller in noting that Missouri French had been heavily influenced by English, with many English words and even entire idiomatic phrases borrowed or translated into the dialect.
Both linguists noted that French was dying out in Old Mines at the time of their studies. Miller reported that the children could not speak it, and the young people would not. Carrière said that the influx of English and greater connection with the outside world had undermined the dialect's base, and that young people were finding that speaking French was of no use to them outside of their homes. As late as the 1980s there were perhaps as many as a thousand speakers left, but they were mostly the older generation of age 60 and above. Today the language has all but died out as means of everyday domestic communication, and only a few elderly speakers are able to use it.
Culture
Traditional French creole culture in the Old Mines area centered on the extended family and the local French community with frequent celebrations. Houses of family were often clustered together.The distinctive type of home built by Missouri French was of a single storey with a broad roof sloping gradually into a roof for the gallery that ran along the broad side of the house, or all around for some of the wealthier French. The style is seen not just in old abodes, but it is still used as a common style in the area for new construction.
The French creole are predominately Catholic. They were originally served by a mission priest from Ste. Genevieve, and a log church was built in Old Mines in 1820. That was replaced by the brick St. Joachim parish church in 1831. Still standing and a center of community life, St. Joachim is three years older than St. Louis' Old Cathedral, making it the oldest standing church in Missouri.
Assimiliation
A variety of forces converged in the first part of the 20th century to break down the community's isolation and accelerate assimilationCultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
into American culture. Paved state highways eroded the region's physical isolation in the 1920s - Missouri Route 21 runs from St. Louis through the center of the Old Mines region on its way to Potosi and beyond. Cultural isolation was also assailed by World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and, especially, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
with mandatory conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
taking many young men and exposing them to the wider world. In the 1930s the prices offered for tiff tumbled, ending more than 200 years of subsistence based on small-scale mining.
Young men left for work in St. Louis and elsewhere. It became impractical for the archdiocese to maintain French-speaking priests for just one parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
, so the sacrament
Sacrament
A sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites.-General definitions and terms:...
s were given only in English. Compulsory education in broader-based, English-only schools became the norm.