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17 January 2004

"A Sewer Runs Through It"

As some of you know, one of my interests is genealogy. Late last semester, I found a book in the campus library that contained valuable information. (Feel free to read the first part of my post for 13 January to learn more.) In researching online and from past information I gleaned from my dad, I discovered that some of my ancestors, the Kaskaskia (Native American) side, at one point settled in an area near the River Des Peres. I used to think that the area was not too far from where I grew up. Apparently though, they had a village "five miles farther south on the bank of the River Des Peres, near where it empties into the Mississippi River", which they started about September of 1700. This village eventually turned into a Catholic mission, as the Jesuit priests were successful in converting the natives of the area to Christianity.

Of course, this piqued my curiosity of the river itself. In searching, I happened upon an article in the Riverfront Times about the river entitled, A Sewer Runs Through It (by Jeannette Batz). The link is at the bottom of this post. It was an interesting article, and the middle of it entails a short history about the river itself, and how it came to be the "River De Pew" that we now know it as. (Fun fact: It got it's name from the two French priests, Fathers Gabriel Marest and François Pinet, who helped to establish the mission. Hence the name, "River of the Fathers".)



"Take me back to Constantinople! .... That's nobody's business but the Turks!"

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