Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Apr 30, 2008, at 11:29 PM, Lynda wrote:

> While doing geneology research for folks I've had occasion to  
> communication
> with the folks at the Missouri History Museum.  They even publish  
> their
> stuff in French, Spanish and English.  A lot of the old legal  
> documents I've
> gotten were still being written in French until the early 1800s.

The primary early exploration route was the Mississippi. St. Louis, of  
course, is a French name and indicates the influence. The purported  
first town of any size west of the Mississippi, coming from the East,  
was and is St. Genevieve, which is south of St. Louis. Very  
interesting house building design there, including vertical poles,  
like the early forts.