Yolo County
Biographies
CHARLES EDWARD ST. LOUIS
Distinguished as the son of a pioneer family of
worth and prominence, Charles Edward St. Louis is well deserving of
representation in this volume. A famer by birth and breeding, he is actively
engaged in agricultural pursuits, owning and occupying a beautiful and valuable
ranch lying not far from Yolo, and in pursuing the occupation for which the
wealth and prosperity of the country so largely depends is meeting with
success. A son of the late Edward St. Louis, he was born, March 17, 1844, in
St. Louis, Mo., of French ancestry on the paternal and Scotch-Irish on the
maternal side.
John B. St. Louis, the grandfather,
was born and bred in France. Coming to America, he settled in Canada, where for
several years he followed his trade of a ship builder and millwright. He
erected the first house in Ottawa, Canada, and was one of the contractors that
built the Rideau Canal, connecting the Ottawa river
with Lake Ontario. His brother, Henry St. Louis, an officer in the French navy,
settled in Missouri, receiving a grant from the French government for land that
now forms a part of the site of the city of St. Louis,
and for which one of his heirs has recently entered suit, the property being in
the very heart of the city. Soon after the death of Henry St. Louis, John B.
St. Louis, his brother, went to Missouri to administer upon the estate, but the
papers were lost, and he could do but little toward establishing a claim,
although he remained there from 1833 until 1852. In the latter year he came
across the plains to California and settled on Cache creek, Yolo county, where he resided until his death, at the age of
eighty-two years. His son Charles, who served under General Fremont, coming
first to California with that brave explorer, subsequently went back to
Missouri for a drove of horses, and on his return to the coast settled about
two miles east of Knights Landing, where he remained until his demise, at the
advanced age of ninety-six years. Mary, wife of John B. St. Louis, was of Swiss
ancestry. She came across the plains with the family, and here spent the
remainder of her long life of eighty-two years. She met with a tragic death,
being fatally burned while trying to rescue one of her young grandchildren from
a burning house.
Born in Canada, Edward St. Louis
remained there until 1833, when he went to St. Louis, Mo., following farming in
that vicinity until 1852, when he migrated with his parents and family to Yolo
county, Cal. Buying a squatter’s right to the claim adjoining the one now owned
by his son Charles, he improved a valuable ranch, and was here employed in
farming and stock-raising until his death, at the age of seventy-nine years. In
his political affiliations he was a Democrat until the breaking out of the
Civil war, but after that time was identified with the Republicans. He married
Marcella P. Jack, who was born in Virginia, of distinguished ancestry, being a
descendant of one of the settlers of the Lord Baltimore colony. She moved with
her parents to Missouri when a girl of twelve years and lived there until after
her marriage. Coming with the family to California in 1852, she spent her
remaining years on the home farm in Yolo, passing away May 6, 1904, in the
eightieth year of her age.
The oldest of a family of ten
children, Charles Edward St. Louis was eight years old when he arrived in
California. In common with the children of the early pioneers he received such
educational advantages as were afforded by the district school, in the meantime
assisting in the improvement of the home farm. At the age of nineteen years he
began his journalistic career for two or three years being employed on what is
now the Woodland Democrat, then known
as the Woodland News. Then, in
company with H. C. Grover, he purchased the plant and business of his employers, and until 1868 was employed as a publisher.
Selling out his interest in the paper in the spring of that year, Mr. St. Louis
worked with his father for a year or more, after which he assumed possession of
his present home ranch, which was deeded to him by his father. He has one
hundred and forty acres of land, which he devotes to general ranching,
including the raising of large crops of hay and grain.
September 6, 1869, Mr. St. Louis
married Carmilita Curn, a
native of Mexico. She died in early womanhood, September 16, 1895, leaving one
daughter, Helena St. Louis. Politically Mr. St. Louis is a stanch
Republican, but has never been an aspirant for public office.
Transcribed
By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History
of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J.
M. Guinn, Pages 521-522. The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago,
1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden
Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies