In 1803 Governor Delassus organized two companies of militia for the protection of New Madrid, and appointed Richard Waters, captain, and George K. Reagan, lieutenant of cavalry, and Robert McCoy, captain, and John Hart, ensign of infantry. William Sullivan obtained the first tavern license issued in the town after its transfer to the Americans, and was appointed by General Harrison constable and coroner, holding in the latter capacity the first inquest. In 1816, when Chouteau laid out the first addition to the town, Sullivan purchased a half block, on which he built a residence, where he died.
Immediately after the transfer of the territory, Colonel Delassus addressed an official note to the new American officials commending, among others, the following officers who had served under him in the French service: James Mackay, commandant at St. Andrew, “an officer of knowledge, zealous and punctual”; also Mr. Mathew McKonel, Robert McKay, “a brave officer,” and Dr. Samuel Dorsey, surgeon of the fort.
After the transfer came the descendants of Irish settlers of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, the Carolinas and Tennessee, a sturdy, vigorous, independent and progressive race, to whom President Roosevelt, himself a descendant on the maternal side, pays tribute in his Winning of the West. The fathers of many of them took part in the Revolutionary War, others were those who were banished from Ireland through the same laws that forced Americans to rebel.
Among the latter was Joseph Charless, a native of Westmeath, who sought his fellow refugees, Mathew Carey and William Duane, in Philadelphia. He worked as a compositor on Duane’s Aurora, and set up for Carey the first folio edition of the Bible printed in the United States. Shortly afterward he left for Kentucky, coming later with his printer’s outfit on mulebacks to St. Louis, where he began the publication of the first newspaper printed west of the Mississippi, the Missouri Gazette, in 1808.
In 1804 came John Mullanphy, the celebrated philanthropist. His third daughter, Jane, married Charles Chambers, son of John Chambers, a United Irishman, who, with Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr. William Macneven and thirteen others, after their release from a political prison, came to America, where they rose to distinction.
James Rankin was the first sheriff of St. Louis under American rule, and the first grand jury contains some Irish names, and many transfers of real estate from early settlers are recorded this year, among them that of Manuel Lisa to Patrick Cullen and Joseph Bent. Eighteen hundred and four was the year when the old Fort Bellefontaine was selected for the establishment of Jefferson Barracks, which, after its abandonment, in 1826, was left in charge of Capt. John Whistler, a native of Ireland, founder of Fort Dearborn, in 1803, now the city of Chicago, and grandfather of the famous American artist, James A. McNeil Whistler. He died in St. Louis in 1829.
This year also saw the departure of Lewis and Clark to the Rocky Mountains, Clark being a brother to Gen. Rogers Clark. Among the party were George Shannon, who afterward became United States attorney for Missouri, and Patrick Gass.
A remarkable Irishman came in 1805—Jeremiah Conners. In 1818 he was the owner of the 40–arpent lots, on which he laid out Washington Avenue. Part of his property he donated to Bishop Dubourg, in 1820, for founding St. Louis University, the first of its kind in St. Louis. At his house was organized the first Irish society established in the city, in 1818.
William Christy, whose people came from County Down, was also a famous man. He laid out the whole section known as North St. Louis. Another large Irish landholder was Patrick McMasters Dillon, who, previous to leaving Ireland, was involved in the Emmet rising. He laid out several additions to the city on lands he purchased, his last being “Dillon’s Fourth Addition,” in 1840, on a tract purchased from Fred Dent, father-in-law of President Grant. One of his daughters, Martha N., married the celebrated Capt. James B. Eads.
Among other large purchasers of real estate in the early years occur the names of James Mackay, James Conway, Mathew Boyse, John Hogan, Hugh O’Neill and John Dougherty. A famous lawyer of this time was Col. Luke E. Lawless, a native of Dublin, who came in 1816, and who, after the resignation of Judge William C. Carr from the Circuit Court, succeeded him. Still another was Nathaniel Beverly Tucker. He became judge of the Circuit Court. One of the family married John Patten Emmet, youngest son of Thomas Addis Emmet, who was appointed professor of chemistry in the University of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson, the son of the union being the celebrated Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet of New York. Another legal luminary was Hamilton Rowan Gamble, whose people came from Belfast. In 1861 he was chosen provisional governor of the state.