Happy birthday, St. Louis. You were founded in 1764 on this day.
Or maybe tomorrow.
That may not appear much of a distinction, considering the time that has passed, but it helps when deciding when to light the candles.
The confusion goes back to what passes for the area’s best evidence of nativity — the penmanship of Auguste Chouteau, who was 14 years old when he stepped onto the land that would become St. Louis in February 1764. He wrote a brief memoir of the event about four decades later, when he was the town’s richest and most prominent citizen.
It all turns upon Chouteau’s handwriting and the dates Feb. 14 or 15. Was that a “14” or a “15” he jotted down in his memoir?
He died in 1829. At the first known founders’ day party in St. Louis, held in 1847, the celebrants went with Feb. 15. But Gabriel Chouteau, a son of Auguste, said later that his father had told him it was the 14th.
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Is that a 14 or a 15 in Auguste Chouteau's remembrance of the founding of St. Louis? And why did someone write the month March over February?
To muddy things more, somebody scratched out Auguste Chouteau’s “February” in his original document and wrote “March” over it. Scholars discount the likelihood of the accuracy of that, but there it is on the original.
In 1964, when St. Louis threw a big bash for the city’s bicentennial, organizers chose Feb. 14. President Lyndon Johnson came to town. The Post-Dispatch splashed birthday greetings upon that day’s edition.
Since then, scholars who examined the original yet again have gone back to the 15th. Among them are Fred Fausz, professor of history at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Gregory Ames, retired former curator at the St. Louis Mercantile Library. They squinted at the way Chouteau wrote his 4s and 5s to come to their conclusion.
In 2010, Fausz told the Post-Dispatch, “The only eyewitness account of the founding of St. Louis says the 15th. That trumps everything else, which is secondhand.”
Take a tour through more than 250 years of St. Louis history.
The stl250 organization, which sponsored seminars and events for the 250th birthday of the city in 2014, had an expansive view. They spread events around.
“We have people who argue about it,” said Erin Budde, stl250’s director. “So it gives us two days to celebrate, and we’ll keep it up all weekend.”
But it ended up being so cold that a public celebration in Forest Park set for Feb. 14 that year was postponed. To Feb. 18. Oh, well.
Back when young Auguste and his 30 helpers began building the village upon the instructions of the founder, Pierre Laclede, they didn’t pause for historic significance. They were too busy chopping down trees and building shelter during a February in St. Louis.
