On Aug. 10, 1821, Missouri became the 24th state in the United States. Peck Row in St. Charles served as the temporary Capitol of Missouri for just over five years, from 1821 to 1826. The promise of free rent, spacious accommodations, close proximity to St. Louis, and access to Boone's Lick Road brought the capital to St. Charles. Meanwhile the permanent capital of Jefferson City was being constructed in the middle of the state.

In 1820, as part of the "Missouri Compromise," Missouri and Maine tried to enter the United States together to preserve the balance between slave states and free states. Maine became a state immediately. Missouri's constitution prohibited the entrance of "free Negroes and mulattos" into the state. That clause violated interstate travel clauses in the U. S. constitution, so Missouri's constitution was rejected. In a special session, the legislature began meeting in St. Charles and made corrections to the state constitution (the "Solemn Public Oath"). After a 17-month ordeal, Missouri became a state.

While in St. Charles, the legislature passed the "Solemn Public Oath," abolished debtors' prison, created the state seal and chose Jefferson City to be Missouri's permanent capital.

Charles Peck, Ruluff Peck and his wife, Adeline, and Chauncy Shepherd owned the Capitol building in St. Charles. The rooms were rented, not owned, by the state. The legislative rooms, governor's office, and the Peck store and residence have been restored to period style.

The buildings were privately owned until Missouri bought them in 1961. After ten years of restoration, the Capitol re-opened as the First Missouri State Capitol State Historical Site.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources administers the historic site, which is open to the public year-round.

[Photos (from left to right) Alexander McNair, Frederick Bates, Abraham Williams (not pictured) and John Miller served as governors while the capital was St. Charles.]

[Right half of marker is photos of the (background) 1st Capitol today, and it appears much as it did in 1820; Map of counties as they were then with location of permanent capital; House chambers; the earliest know photo of the First capitol building taken in the 1860's.]

The beginning point of the "Western Plank Road", a toll road of two bits (25 cents) per person, extended nine miles to Cottleville, connecting with Boone's Lick Road. Stagecoaches left from St. Charles here at the Boone's Lick Trading Post circa 1854. The coaches traveled first weekly, then daily, to old Franklin (washed away by the Missouri River) and to Fort Osage, 275 miles from St. Louis. The plank road lasted only 13 years and became impossible to maintain due to rot, warp-age and thieves, who used the planks for firewood and barn building.

A variety of wagons used the trails during the westward migration. The Conestoga wagon was the most durable. It was built in the Pennsylvania Valley between 1750-1840. Prairie schooners and covered farm wagons were also used, pulled by horses, oxen or mules. Mules were preferred; a team could cost up to two hundred dollars. Water barrels were filled along the fresh spring creek called Louis Blanchette's Creek. Blanchette was the founder of St. Charles in 1769.

Daniel Boone first blazed this trail following old Indian paths to a salt spring near Booneville, Mo. In 1806 Boone's sons, Nathan and Daniel Morgan, moved to the salt springs near Boonville to harvest salt for pioneers. Salt, essential for the preservation of meat, sold for $4 a bushel. Nathan helped survey and straighten the trail, renaming it the Boone's Lick Road. It became a state road in 1827. Boone's Lick became the first westward passage to the Oregon, Santa Fe Trail and California Trail. On April 14, 1849, the St. Charles Western Star predicted, "thirty thousand pioneers will use this route to get to the California Gold Rush in the next three months.

[Note: Suggest readers refer to other Boone information about this Trail. This marker is slightly misleading, i.e. Daniel Boone was denied his Spanish land Granted by the Spanish Government and the American Government in 1804. He did not live with his wife; Daniel moved into Nathans home (near current Defiance, Mo) and Rebecca moved in with their daughter Jemima Boone Callaway near the current town of Dutzow, Mo. Which implies they could not care for themselves, and Daniel was 70 years old in 1804 could he be blazing a trail? JRK 5-23-'06]

On October 11, 1864, at Boonville, Missouri, Confederate General Sterling Price met with an already infamous "Bloody Bill" Anderson, during Price's westward march on his 1864 Missouri Expedition. Price instructed Anderson to take a party east to disrupt and destroy the North Missouri Railroad. Anderson's men traveled east on the Boone's Lick Trail (Road), passing through Franklin and Rocheport, and skirting Columbia, then continuing to Williamsburg and Danville. After the attack on Danville, described here, the raiders moved on New Florence and High Hill, to the east, and destroyed tracks and railroad facilities there. The damage to the railroad, however, was relatively slight, and the raiders ended their eastward dash well before reaching their objective, a bridge at the St. Charles County line.

After High Hill, Anderson's men camped on the New Florence - Hermann Road several miles southeast of here, then crossed the Missouri River west of Hermann.

You are standing on the site of the Danville Female Academy, and at your front is the sole surviving building of the Academy, the chapel and dormitory.

The Female Academy was founded in 1853 by the Reverend James H. Robinson at a time when Danville was an important stop on the Boonslick Road, and it is considered one of the first female "colleges" west of the Mississippi River. As shown by the woodcut at the upper right, the academy became a substantial facility during the years of its operation (1853-1865). The Rev. Robinson moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1865, and he became a prominent educator there.

On the evening of October 14, 1864, rebel horsemen rode east into Danville on the Boonslick Road - a rare segment of which survives two blocks northwest of here. Danville was a predominately Unionist settlement at the time and was garrisoned by Union troops operating out of a large blockhouse that stood at the southeast corner of the public square. The night of the Anderson's Raid, these union troops were stationed several miles to the east, protecting the North Missouri Railroad.

Arriving in town at 8:30 p.m. without warning, Anderson's men began their rampage by indiscriminately killing several of the townspeople, including 12-year-old Ira Chinn. For three and one half hours, the southern raiders practiced their grisly trade. Some, like "Little Archie" Clements had been at Centralia just two and a half weeks earlier and knew well how to terrorize a town. The raiders moved east, to New Florence, about midnight and left most of the town of Danville in flames and ruins. Still intact was the substantial brick home of Missouri legislator Sylvester Baker, which stands to this day down the road about a mile to the east.

The most fascinating story to come out of the Danville Raid happened right here. Guerrillas entered the academy grounds believing that Union troops had secreted themselves in the chapel and demanded the keys from Mrs. Robinson. While this scene transpired, some of the students housed in the second floor dormitory ran for the woods, while some came out to confront the guerrillas, claiming they were southern girls and begging that the school be spared. Local lore holds that one of the girls hung her petticoat on a staff over the front door of this place as a sign of truce. Whatever the reason, the school survived and this chapel survived, a testament to the grit of some young Missouri women, some northern and some southern in heritage.

This building was a Methodist Church until the 1950's and is considered by some to be the finest example of Greek Revival architecture still standing in central Missouri.

Was "Bloody Bill" Anderson at Danville? Major historians have disagreed on the issue of whether Anderson commanded the raiders at Danville, but some of the literature also places him at Glasgow, Missouri on the wrong date - i.e. on the same day as the Danville Raid. The Draper sisters believe they saw the infamous Anderson here. If he was not, then his sidekick, the diabolical "Little Archie" Clements was in command.

First permanent settlement on the Missouri River, known as Les Petites Cotes (Fr. Little Hills) until after dedication of Church of St. Charles Borromeo, 1791. Though 1780 is is given as date of founding French-Canadian Louis Blanchette first settled here in 1769.

The area was first settled by the French and later largely by Americans and Germans. Prominent early settlers were Daniel Boone and his family. Some 25 miles southwest is home of Boone's son Nathan. The Boone's Lick Trail and Salt Lick Trail began at St. Charles.

During the War of 1812 military activity in Missouri centered at Portage des Sioux, a 1799 French settlement, 14 miles northeast. In Fort Zumwalt State Park, 20 miles west, stand the remains of one of many family forts on the area erected against Indian attacks.

Here were established the first school of the Sacred Heart in the U.S., 1818, by Mother Duchesne; Baptist and Presbyterian churches, 1818; first Masonic lodge north of Missouri River, 1819; a town academy, chartered, 1820; a newspaper, "The Missourian," 1820; and the Methodist St. Charles College, chartered, 1837.

St. Charles was made the temporary State capital, 1821-1826, by act of the First General Assembly, meeting in St. Louis, 1820. Here the Legislature, by affirming in a "Solemn Public Act" that the rights of any U.S. citizen would not be abridged, met the final Congressional requirement for statehood. Debate over the slavery issue that greeted Missouri's petition for statehood resolved itself in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Slavery was prohibited north of 36° 30' except in Missouri. On Aug. 10, 1821, Missouri became the 24th state.

Near here is the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi. Marquette and Jolliet noted this point, 1673, and here the Lewis and Clark Expedition began its ascent of the Missouri, 1804. Three Bridges cross the Missouri and two the Mississippi in St. Charles County.

Seat of justice for one of Missouri's 5 counties, earlier one of 5 Spanish districts, St. Charles serves a farming and industrial area. Here are the old Capital; Sacred Heart Convent; St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery; and Lindenwood College, chartered, 1835, founded earlier by George and Mary Sibley, one of the oldest schools for women in Mississippi Valley.

Ezra Overall owned this property and may have built this home. He was a local attorney and land speculator, selling dozens of properties. He sold this property to Frederick Maerklin. This building is a good example of a "single German" one story house with a gabled roof. It is located at the north side of the beginning of the Western Plank Road.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Paule managed the Western House hotel at Boone's Lick Trail and South Main. This was their first home. Edward Paule was the proprietor of the Monroe House, a boarding house and saloon at Third and Chauncey. He also served as mayor of St. Charles from 1897-1904. Edward Paule was the son of John Paule, a native of Bavaria and a partner in Paul & Talley Steam Wooler Mill Factory, circa 1857 (at Boone's Lick and South Main - northeast side). The mill provided stocking yarn and 100,000 yards of blue wool suiting worn by Union Soldiers during the Civil War. John Paule served as a city council member for two terms.

The Western House was built prior to 1821 as a hostelry and inn. Many pioneers in covered wagons left from this point following the Boone's Lick Trail out of which grew the Santa Fe Trail, the Salt Lick Trail and the Great Oregon Trail.

[The house in the background is the last house remaining from the town of Lewistown. It is currently in use as a private residence. Lewiston was the second of the original County Seats of Montgomery County, before the county was split into smaller counties. The Montgomery County marker identifies this location as being in Warren County, but it is not. On the north service road of what is now Interstate 70, ½ mile west of current town of High Hill.]

[For additional information, refer to other "Boone's Lick" locations. Try to plot the locations on a map and see if you can trace the original road.]