In the books' own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. The later printing (1899) is folded below the first. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1800
From Saint Louis : the future great city of the world : with biographical sketches of the representative men and women of St. Louis and Missouri (1876), Encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference (v. 3) (1899)
JAMES H. LUCAS.
JAMES H. LUCAS was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, November 12, 1800, and was consequently aged seventy-three at his decease. His father, John B. C. Lucas, was a native of Normandy, received a in)eral education at the University of Caen, and visiting Paris after the close of the American revolution, adopted the recommendation of Dr. Franklin, and with other chivalric, ambitious young Frenchmen, emigrated to America. James le Ray du Chaumont, at whose father's house, near Passy, Franklin and Adams were domiciled, also came to the United States about the same time, and bought immense tracts of land in Otsego and Jetl'person counties, New York. Mr. Lucas went to Pennsylvania, and settled in Pittsburg, where he subsequently was appointed judge of the District Court; was efficient in enforcing the law during the whisky rebellion, and represented the State in the National Congress. Before the year 1800, he was sent on a special mission, by Mr. Jefl'person, to the then Territory of Louisiana, to sound the people in regard to the ac(iuisition of the country by the United States, and thereby give unobstructed navigation to the mouth of the Mississippi for our commerce. On this mission he became impressed with the site of the " future great city," but Ste. Genevieve being then the most important point, he went there, and had a conference with Francis Valle, the Spanish commandant. The object of his diplomatic visit was concealed, and it is said that he went under the assumed name of Du Panthro. After the acquisition of Loidsiana, he was appointed by President Jefferson one of the judges of the Territory, and, in conjunction with Governor Wilkinson and Return Jonathan Meigs, commissioner to adjust land titles. He removed to St. Louis with his family in 1805, the tedious journey being made on keel-boats down the Ohio and up the jVIississippi.
St. Louis was then, with some exceptions, merely the residence of the indolent trapper or most desperate adventurer. Then there were no indications of public spirit, or any desire other than that of accumulation with the least possible exertion. The houses, mostly of wood daubed with clay, or built of stone in massive style, gave an idea of antique fortresses. Chouteau hill is described in the chronicles of the time as a barren waste over which the winds whistled and wild animals roamed. The streets were in a horrid condition. In this pristine period of the city young Lucas passed his boyhood days. In after years he related having seen wolves prowling about near the present site of Nicholson's establishment, on Sixth and Chestnut. They came out of the woods during the cold winter of 1808. The boys trapped prairie chickens where the Laclede Hotel stands, also in the fields near Twelfth and Olive, where the Missouri Park is located. In 1814 young Lucas went with his father to Washington City. They traveled the entire distance on horseback, avoiding Vincennes on account of the Indians. It required from thirty to forty days to travel to Philadelphia. The traveler who then made a journey to the Atlantic States did not resolve upon it without mature deliberation. Months of preparation were required. Kind wishes and prayers were offered for the safe return of the vo3'agers by those who remained behind. There would have been some interest in announcing the departures.
At the proper age young Lucas was sent to school. He first attended St. Charles College, in charge of the Dominican Order, at Harrisburg, Kentucky. Among his schoolmates at this institution were, Jetferson Davis, Louis A. Benoist, Bernard Pratte, Gustave Soulard and Bion Gratiot. Mr. Lucas next attended school about 1816, with his brother William, at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and it was while there that he received news of the death of his brother Charles, killed in a duel with Colonel Benton. The subject of this sketch taught school and studied law at Hudson. New York. He also visited various parts of New England, and pursued his law studies with Judge Reeves, of Litchfield, Connecticut, and among the students attending at the same time were Governor Ashley, Ichabod Bartlett, of New Hampshire, and N. P. Talniads:e, afterward United States Senator from New York. Durins: one of his vacations he spent some time in Franklin, New Haven, where he was known as the "Young Frenchman," a designation given him from his wearing in the morning a robe-de-chamhre, which was a novelty in the way of dress in those parts.
Becoming satisfied that the East was not the place suited for him, he returned to St. Louis, and casting about for a place to settle, he started on a keel-boat in 1823 for South America, having for companions Governor Ashley and another young man. They landed at Montgomery Point, on the White river, and changing their destination, went up the White river in a pirogue, passed through the "Cut-oflT" to Arkansas
Post, where Mr. Lucas located for a time, and also at Little Rock. He turned his hand during this period to various avocations. He taught school and practiced law, passing his evenings in study. He worked for a time on the Arkansas Gazette, and set type to help out ]Mr. "Woodruff, who was then editor of that sheet. He became the owner of a phmtation, and had a ferry, when he would convey foot-passengers over the river opposite his larm at a cost of twenty-live cents. He worked his way slowly up, and was appointed by Governor Miller Probate Judge. He has since related that as judge, he did a fair business in marrying people. He officiated at the wedding of Albert Pike, the poet-lawyer and statesman. On one occasion, he married a couple, using instead of a Bible to satisfy the scruples of the party, a Webster's spelling book. In May 1832, he married Miss Mary E. Dessusseaux, the daughter of an early settler of Arkansas and a native of Cahokia, who survives him. Among other positions killed by him at this period was that of Major in the Territorial militia of Arkansas, an appointment also tendered him by Governor James Miller in 1825.
He continued to prosper, when, on the death of his brother William at St. Louis, in 1837, he received a letter from his father. Judge Lucas, requesting him to come and settle in St. Louis, as he was the only son who was living, and he was desirous that he should be near him. He obeyed the wishes of his father, and forsaking his prospects in Arkansas, removed to St. Louis, since which time he has been identified with its growth and prosperity. He arrived in 1838, having been here on a visit the year before. His father gave him what he called his farm, of thirty acres of land, then valued by the old gentleman at $30,000, and also placed him in charge of his estate. Mr. Lucas cultivated the farm, and had his residence near the fountain in Lucas, now called Missouri Park.
Judge J. B. C. Lucas died in 1843, and James H. Lucas and his sister, Mrs. Anna M. Hunt, succeeded to the estate.
The original tract owned by the estate was bounded north by St. Charles street, on the east by Fourth, south by Market, and west by Pratt avenue. That embraced the Lucas property up to 1837. The last acquisition made by the old Judge was Cote Brilliante, consisting of 240 acres, which was bought for $150 in gold, and comprised the undivided land owned by Mr. Lucas and Mrs. Hunt. Mr. Lucas had also another farm, the New Madrid location, his country seat, called "Normandy," on the St. Charles Rock road, nine miles from the city. This portion, now belonging to the Lucas estate, comprises 800 acres. Also, at the mouth of the Missouri river, there are 643 acres belonging to the estate. This is an old Spanish fort, where the battle of Bellefontaine was fought, in which tight Charles Lucas participated as Colonel. There is also the Courtois tract, consisting of 400 arpents, near Eureka station on the Meramec, still undi'ided; also, 20 acres on the Clayton road, the old Barrett place. In the management of the city portion of his vast estate in building and improvements, Mr. Lucas devoted the remaining years of his protracted life, and but rarely engaged in the turbulent excitement of political affairs.
He, however, consented to run for State Senator in 1844, and, being elected, served four years with credit to himself. He secured the passage of an act reducing the statute of limitations in ejectment cases from twenty to ten years.
In 1847, Mr. Lucas was brought forward as the candidate of the Whig party for Mayor, his opponents being W. M. Campbell, Native American, and Judge Bryan MuUanphy, Democrat. Mr. Lucas was drawn into the canvass unwillingly, being drafted as it were, but having become a candidate, entered into the contest with spirit. The result was that Judge Mullanphy was elected, the vote being — Mullanphy, 2,453; Campbell, 1,829; Lucas, 962. The Whig party was then in its decadence, and the putting forward of Mr. Lucas as its candidate was in the nature of a forlorn hope in its struofo;le for existence.
Immersed in the concerns of the large business connected with his immense property, he found time for, and was identified with, many public enterprises. He was an early champion of railroads in Missouri. He was among the original subscribers to the stock of the Missouri Pacific railroad to the amount of $33,000, and was the second president of that company In 1868 he was again elected president. He was instrumental in purchasing the State's lien at $7,500,000, and with James Harrison negotiated a loan on the bonds. He was the president and organizer of the St.. Louis Gas Company He tvas a director in the Boatmen's Savings Institution; an extensive stockholder and director in many of the various moneyed institutions of the city, and was intrusted Avith many responsible positions.
In 1857, the banking firm of Lucas, Symonds & Co., of St. Louis, ana the branch in San Francisco, under the firm of Lucas, Turner & Co., went under with the financial panic of that year. In these financial troubles Mr. Lucas assumed the entire liabilities, and paid off every creditor, with ten per cent, interest, the loss to him amounting in the aggregate to about half a million of dollars. The debtors of the banking houses he never sued, but accepted whatever was offered.
As printed in Saint Louis : the future great city of the world : with biographical sketches of the representative men and women of St. Louis and Missouri (1876). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
JAMES H. LUCAS, the fourth son of J. B. C. Lucas, was born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, November 12, 1800, and died in St. Louis, November 9, 1873. He was five years of age when his parents moved to St. Louis, and may, therefore, be said to have been reared in this city. He first attended St. Thomas College, in the State of Kentucky, at which institution he had for schoolmates, among others, Jefferson Davis, Louis A. Benoist, Bernard Pratte, Gustav Soulard and Bion Gratiot. Afterward he attended Jefferson College of Pennsylvania, and then studied law at Hudson, New York. In 1813 he returned to St. Louis, and soon afterward started for South America, going down the Mississippi River, accompanied by two other young men, in a keelboat. They landed at Montgomery Point, on the White River, and changing their destination, went up White River in a pirogue and passed through the “cut-off” to Arkansas Post, where Mr. Lucas remained for a time. Later he went to Little Rock. During the early years of his residence in Arkansas he taught school a portion of the time, and the rest of the time practiced law. Then he became the owner of a plantation, interested himself in public affairs, and was appointed probate judge by Governor Miller. While acting as probate judge he solemnized the marriage of Albert Pike, the poet, lawyer and statesman. He also served, during his residence in Arkansas, as major in a regiment of territorial militia. In May, 1832, he married there Miss Mary E. Desruisseaux, who was the daughter of an early settler of Arkansas, but a native of Cahokia, Illinois. In 1838, at the request of his father, who desired to have his only surviving son near him, he removed to St. Louis, and thereafter, until his death, he was a resident of this city. Upon his arrival here his father gave him a farm, and also placed him in charge of his estate. The elder Lucas died five years later, and James H. Lucas then became the head of the Lucas family, and the manager of a vast estate, which was constantly increasing in value. To the care, conservation and development of this property he devoted the remaining years of his life, and he was also identified with many public enterprises. He was among the original subscribers toward the building of the Mis- A i ‘road, in which he took $100,- souri Pacific Railroad, 4 ooo worth of stock, and he was the second president of that company. In 1868 he was again elected president of the road, and he was instrumental in purchasing the State s lien at $7,300,000, and with James Harrison negotiated a loan on the bonds. He was the first president and organizer of the St. Louis Gas Company; was also a director in the Boatmen’s Savings Institution, and was interested as a stockholder and director in many other financial enterprises. He was a member of the banking firm of Lucas, Symonds & Co., of St. Louis, and also of the firm of Lucas, Turner & Co., of San Francisco, California, both of which failed as a result of the financial panic of 1857. Although under no moral obligation to do so. he assumed the entire liabilities of these banking institutions, and paid every creditor in full, with 10 per cent interest, at a personal loss to himself of half a million dollars. In later years he traveled extensively, both at home and abroad, and purchased the old homestead of his family at Pont-Audemer, in France. His large holdings of real estate in St. Louis were improved during his lifetime to a great extent, and in 1872, previous to his making a division of his property, he was the owner of two hundred and twenty-five dwellings and stores. His residence was for many years on the southeast corner of Ninth and Pine Streets, but the last years of his life were passed in a handsome home on Lucas Place, which bore his name. He projected and built Lucas Market, donated a lot valued at $10,000 to the Missouri Historical Society, gave to the city Missouri Park, and in various other ways evidenced his generosity and his loyalty to St. Louis.
As printed in Encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference (v. 3) (1899). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Named in this biography: Bernard Pratte James Harrison
Their biographies name James H. Lucas: Charles Henry Peck (b. 1817) Anne L. Hunt John B. C. Lucas John Johnson (b. 1817) Henry Smith Turner (b. 1811) Albert D. Silverthorne (b. 1863) Richard F. Sass Joseph Charless (b. 1804) Charles D. Eitzen (b. 1819) Charles Jones Jean B. C. Lucas (b. 1758)
The printed record stops around 1876. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.