St Joseph, Missouri, USA
1892 - Beginnings of St. Joe

St. Joe was a trading post, established in 1843, at the confluence of the Black snake creed with the great parent of waters. It was established by Joseph Robideaux, a Frenchman, and he is the man referred to incidentally on a tombstone up on the shores of Lake Superior. The stone reads as follows:

This stone was erected to the memory of John Robideaux who was shot by request of his brother.

Joseph is the brother at whose request the stone was erected and who forgot to have the stone properly punctuated.

This country in the early days was invaded by Sacs and Foxes. A humorous historian might have said the Anglo-Saxon Foxes, but that would be a facetious license.

A steamboat landing was erected here at great expense by driving a pole into the river bank. Soon afterward Audubon visited the place, and with prophetic eye has been utilized in that way.

Robideaux laid out a townsite here and then called together the old hunters and trappers to name the little town. Mr. Robideaux had provided a large barrel of something to shatter across the bow of the newly christened craft. Each trapper suggested a name, but each name seemed to be distasteful to Joe, till Charlie Stewart, the "Old Zip Coon" of history, suggested, with his eye on the keg, that it be called St. Joseph in honor of Mr. Robideaux.

"Knock her head in," said Joe, and the barrel was busted quicker than a New York Sunday law.

General good feeling prevailed, followed by remorse and Apollinaris water.

The streets were named while the general good feeling was in the act of prevailing. They were named for the sons and daughters of whom Joseph had repeatedly found himself the parent. Among them were Messanie, Angelique, Sylvanie, Charles, Edmund, Felix, Francis, Jule, Fareon, Michel, Rosine, Antoine, Louis, Fouline, Auguste, Isablle, Iodine, Fouberg, Robideaux, Alphonse and Poisson. The streets were the first to give out, for Joseph still had his quiver full of names.

Robideaux built a big brick store, which was known far and wide as the great building of the western country. It is now a modest sausage factory famous for its manufacture of the toothsome black-and-tan sausage of Missouri.

Joseph has long since passed on to that eternal hunting ground where coonskin cap is entirely superfluous. His portrait now hangs in the board of trade auditorium of the prosperous city.

Aurora Daily Express
Aurora, Illinois
April 19, 1892

Visit St Joseph, Missouri, USA
Discover the people who lived there, the places they visited and the stories they shared.