Untitled - Digitizing America

Claude Du Tisne returned with iron ore
samples from the interior of Missouri, where he
had been drawn by following Indian trails. La
Mothe Cadillac, the Louisiana governor, led an
expedition in search of minerals, which resulted
in the discovery of lead fields. The Royal
Companyof thelndies wasformed, attracting a
wave of immigrants from Canada and France
into the "lllinois Country."
Philippe Francois Renault, member of a
prominent French iron-mining family. was the
most successful of the early French miners and
was also responsible for the introduction of
slavery into Missouri.
He left France in 1719 with men, tools, and
furnace bricks. Bound for Upper Louisiana, he
stopped on his way in Santo Domingo where he
bought slaves to work the mines.
Some two hundred workmen mined the
area, smelted the lead, and molded it into pigs
(molds) . Pack horses transported it to the river.
It was then shipped from New Orleans to France .
Six years after his arrival. Renault's workmen
wer€ obtaining fifteen hundred pounds of lead
a day.
When Renault returned to France in7742.
many workmen remaingd behind to work the
mines, but mining activity lagged for a time.
Ste. Genevieve became the principal lead
shipping point on the west bank o{ the
Mississippi River.
After the French and Indian Wars- 1689-
7763 - involving France against England,
France ceded her territory west of the Mississippi
to Spain, and east of the river to the
English. Rather than live under English rule,
the French settlers migrated to the west bank,
establishing their homes near the mines.
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One of these settlers was Francis Azor, who
was born in Brittany and was referred to as The
Breton . During a hunting trip, he came across a
rich surface outcropping of lead ore on the site
now known as Potosi. A mining camp, followed
by a village, developed as other settlers were
attracted here by The Breton's f ind. The village,
mines. and creek became known as Mine au
Breton. Time brought about a corruption o{ that
term to Mine A Burton.
The districtwas underthe Spanish regime,
whichtooksides withFrance against England in
the American Revolution . Led on by the English,
Indians often attacked settlers in Missouri.
According to tradition, lead from the mines
of Washington County was used by American
troops in the War for Independence.
To ensure its hold on the territory wes-t of
the Mississippi after the Revolution, the Spanish
gave out land grants to populate the territory. It
caused a dynamic change as such grants attracted
American settlers from the east and slave
holders in the south, who began farming in
BellevueValley and elsewhere, as well as mining
for mineral deposits of iron, copper, zinc, but
principally for lead.
A prominent figure in the development of
Missouri, of the lead mining industry, and of the
opening of the West was Moses Austin, who received
a land grant which included a large part
of Azor's grant at Mine au Breton. Through his
e{{orts and those of his partner, JohnRiceJones,
lead mining and smelting became Missouri's first
major industry.
Mine au Breton served as the "trading point
for all the country south.into Arkansas. People
came from miles around to trade, and on some
days a hundred pack mules and ponies, some
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