V17_p123-132 - Murray State University

HISTORICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF FEATURE 4,
A CELLAR IN THE YARD OF THE FELIX VALLE
STATE HISTORIC SITE (23StG 190),
STE. GENEVIEVE, MISSOURI
Grant Quertennous
ABSTRACT Recent archaeological investigations (Hamilton 1990; Wesler 1999) at the Felix Valle State Historic
Site (23StG190) in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, have identified an archaeological feature, believed to be a cellar, in
the west yard of the property, adjacent to the 1818 stone structure. This paper will trace the history of the property
from its earliest occupation until its late 20th century designation as a historic site, through documentary records
and archaeological evidence. I believe that the cellar is probably a remnant of an 1818 construction project by
owner Jacob Philipson, and I intend to prove this using documentary and archaeological evidence.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The original settlement of Sainte Genevieve, known as
Misere, was located in the Mississippi River's floodplain,
across the river from Kaskaskia, Illinois. Historian Carl I.
Eckberg (1985) believes the first settlers crossed the river
from Kaskaskia in 1735 to take advantage of the fertile
unused land on this side of the river. The settlement was a
typical French colonial agrarian community which
subsisted by farming the rich fertile alluvial soil of the
flood plain. The settlers also utilized the other resources in
the area, such as producing salt from the nearby saline
creeks, mining lead, and trapping. The settlement of Ste.
Genevieve, like many other French colonial settlements,
concentrated all farming activity on Le Grand Champs, the
common field. In the common field system, each citizen
received a long narrow strip of the common field in which
they may grow their produce, a practice of European origin
(ibid.).
After the French and Indian War, the French gave up
claims to the lands east of the Mississippi, turning control
over to Great Britain. France ceded the lands west of the
Mississippi to Spain. French colonists began moving
across the river to Ste. Genevieve. In 1770, the Spanish
government established a garrison in Ste. Genevieve, but
Spanish military presence was always very small. After
1783, the lands east of the Mississippi fell under a new
government, that of the United States of America. More
French colonists crossed the river and chose Ste.
Genevieve as their new home. The small farming
Grant Quertermous Department of Geosciences I 04
Wilson Hall Murray State University Murray, Kentucky
42071
community prospered but continued to be plagued by the
flooding of the Mississippi River (Eckberg 1985). Over
time, several families decided to move their residences to
higher ground overlooking the old town. Flooding was so
severe in 1785, that it became known as L 'annee des
grandes eaux (year of the great waters). After this
disastrous flooding episode, the majority of the
townspeople moved their homes up to the elevated region
already selected by those who had relocated earlier. New
Ste. Genevieve had now been established (Hamilton 1990).
Historian Charles Peterson (1941) described the new
town as being laid out in a checkerboard fashion, as were
St. Louis, St. Charles, New Madrid, and other colonial
towns. He noted that the development was much more
compact than the old town, and that the streets divided the
town into blocks of roughly 350 x 400 ft (106.7 x 121.6
meters). These blocks were in turn divided into four
smaller equal sections, described as one arpent square.
Historian Walter Schroeder wrote that each village lot had
room for a garden, orchard, and barns located behind the
main dwelling (Schroeder 1983). Schroeder's statement is
in agreement with the account of Henry Brackenridge
(1834), a traveler who visited Ste. Genevieve in 1811 and
wrote that the yards ''were quite spacious and contained a
bam, stables, the Negro quarters and all the necessary
offices of a farmyard" (Brackenridge 1834; see also
Williamsen 1990). A late 18th century survey of the new
town identified the Valle House lot as Lot Number 9.
Although I refer to the lot as the "Valle'' lot, it did not fall
under Valle ownership until1824.
THE LaPLANTE OCCUPATION
The earliest known occupation of Lot #9 was that of
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology 17(2002):123-132
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
Nicholas LaPlante, as indicated in town records from the
year 1799. Nicholas LaPlante was reputed to be one of
General George Rogers Clark's scouts and a guide.
However, an examination of Clark's records of his travels
in the Illinois country reveal no mention of a Nicholas
LaPlante (Kenneth Carstens, personal communication).
Historian Lucille Basler (1980) wrote that LaPlante was
one ofthe original settlers of Old Town and that he owned
land in the common field. Basler includes LaPlante's
genealogy in her book The Pioneers of Old Ste Genevieve.
The LaPlante family traces their heritage to Nicholas and
Elisabeth Chauvin LaPlante of LaRochelle, France. Their
son Jean LaPlante emigrated to Quebec, where he married
Fran9ois Boucher. In 1687, Jean's son Thomas, married
Marthe Palliereau. They had one son, George, who married
Madeline Morisset, in Quebec in 1734. They were the
parents of Nicholas. Nicholas was born in Quebec and in
1783 he married Apoline Fortin, and moved to Ste.
Genevieve (Basler 1983).
At the time of the LaPlante occupation, Lot #9
consisted of the lot presently occupied by the Felix Valle
State Historic Site, and the adjacent lot, currently owned by
the Citizens Electric Company of Ste. Genevieve.
LaPlante's residence was located somewhere on the
property, as were his many outbuildings.
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regarding property inheritance was used by the early
settlers. This system granted each spouse half of the estate
upon the death of the other, with the other half being
granted to the children. The widow also received a douaire,
a sum of money stipulated in the contract that she would
receive when her husband died. If no contract was drawn
up, the douaire was deducted from the total assets of the
estate. The remainder was halved, with one half going to
the children, and the surviving spouse receiving the other
hal£ Children received equal shares regardless of sex.
Wills were rare in the Illinois country, and only 45 survive
in Ste. Genevieve for the period 1750-1805. Studies also
show that in French settlements wives and widows
exercised considerable power and came to be excellent
administrators of their families property and business
interests. French women as a whole benefited from the
special demographic circumstances that characterized the
early development of Ste. Genevieve. The legal system,
particularly the inheritance practices, provided widows
with economic independence by protecting their property.
This allowed them to live independently, eliminating the
need for remarriage for economic stability (Boyle I 987).
This shows us that Widow LaPlante was able to live
independently for the rest of her life on her property, and
she probably still continued to run LaPlant's sugar refinery
as well as manage her inheritance.
THE PHILIPSON OCCUPATION
Apoline Fortin passed away some time in the 1790s,
but her estate was not settled until 1799. An examination
of her 1799 will gives a description of the LaPlante
property and the outbuildings upon it: the lot was one
arpent square, with a house of poteaux-en-terre (post in the
ground), 20 x 15 ft floored and a good earthenware
fireplace, a 50 x 30 ft barn, a corn crib, chicken coop, an
orchard, and a shed covered with wooden shingles. The
assessed value of the property in 1799 was 750 livres (Ste.
Genevieve Archives 1799; St. Paul, 2000).
The April 14, 1818, land grant between Jacob Philipson
and Madam LaPlante lists Philipson's portion as "a corner
lot, being bordered by the lot of said LaPlante" (Ste.
Genevieve County Recorder's Office 1818b). Almost
immediately Philipson began construction of a stone house
on the property, as indicated by Parfait DuFour's
November 15, 1818, deed record for an adjacent lot, which
uses Philipson's "stone building" as a directional reference
(Ste. Genevieve County Recorder's Office 1818c).
Shortly after the death of his first wife in 1795,
LaPlante married Marianne Garier du Micillier. They
subsequently had one child. Marianne outlived Nicholas
LaPlante, who died sometime before 1818, the year that
Marianne subdivided the lot. Marianne lived the rest of her
life on the eastern portion of Block #9. In 1818, Marianne
sold the unoccupied portion of the property for $1,500 to
Jacob Philipson, a Jewish merchant and businessman from
Philadelphia (Ste. Genevieve County Recorder's Office
1818a).
Before Philipson came to Ste. Genevieve, he lived in St.
Louis, where he arrived in 1808. He set up a dry goods
shop, selling a wide variety of wares including "Moroccan
leather, imported liquors, and German Bibles, a 114 gallon
still, as well as a seasonable supply of dry goods"
(Philipson Advertisement, St. Louis Evening Gazette).
Philipson's dry goods store was one of the earliest Jewish
owned businesses to advertise in St. Louis. In 1811,
Philipson brought his business ventures to Ste. Genevieve,
where he married Elizabeth Block, the daughter of one of
his business partners (Ehrlich 1988 ).
Marianne LaPlante was one of a small number of
women in Ste. Genevieve who probably continued to run
her husbands business interests after his death. In Ste.
Genevieve, the French system, the cotume de Paris,
124
In 1824, Philipson sold his stone house, in which he
had set up his Ste. Genevieve dry goods business, and all
property associated with it. He and his family moved to
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
Potosi, in Washington County, then back to St. Louis. The
Panic of 1819 destroyed his business ventures and he was
forced to teach music and French lessons to make a living
(Hamilton 1990).
THE VALLE OCCUPATION
On June 10, 1824, Jacob Philipson, then residing in
Washington County, Missouri, sold the stone house and
property around it to Jean Baptiste Valle for the sum of
$3,500. The record of the transaction describes the
property as "A certain lot with buildings" bordered on the
east by the lot of Marianne LaPlante (Ste. Genevieve
County Recorder's Office 1824).
The property was now in the hands of one of the most
powerful and wealthy men of Ste. Genevieve. Jean Baptiste
Valle was the son of Fran~ois Valle, a Canadian born
trader from Kaskaskia who had moved his enterprises
across the river in the 1750s. Fran~is became leader of the
militia, a civil judge, and the wealthiest man in the region
(cf. Morrow 1987). Jean Baptiste inherited all of his
father's talents and fortune. Along with his brother
Fran~ois II, Jean Baptiste doubled his father's fortune,
made in the ownership of area lead mines and property in
the town and common field. "Baptiste" or ''Pere Valle" as
he was known, lived his entire 89 years in Ste. Genevieve.
He became the military commander of the Ste. Genevieve
district of the Louisiana Territory under the Spanish
crown, after the death of his brother, and held that position
until the territory was handed over to the American
Government, at which time he was appointed Justice
General of the Peace by President William Henry Harrison.
Baptiste's marriage to Jean Barbeau produced four sons,
one of which was Felix Valle.
Jean Baptiste used the stone house as a commercial
building to conduct many of the Valle business interests,
including operation of the Valle Mines as well as the
Menard and Valle Dry Goods firm that he had in
partnership with Pierre Menard of Kaskaskia. Felix Valle
was born in 1800 in Ste. Genevieve and grew up in his
father's large house, on the same block as plot #9, located
to the southeast. Felix, fluent in both French and English,
received an American Catholic education in Bardstown,
Kentucky. He married Odile Pratte in 1823 and they
bought the stone house from his father in 1835. However,
it is believed that they lived there prior to their purchase.
In 1830, Marianne LaPlante deeded her portion of the
property to her daughter Odile LePlante Janis and her sonin-law, Fran~ois Janis for $1. In the deed, the property is
described as "being bordered on the north by Merchant's
street and on the west side by the lot owned by Jean
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Baptiste Valle formerly owned by Jacob Philipson" (Ste.
Genevieve County Recorder's Office 1830).
In 1833, Fran~ois and Odile Janis were listed as the
only heirs and legal representatives of the estates of
Nicholas and Marianne LaPlante, then deceased. The
Janis's sold their portion of the property to Jean Baptiste
Valle, Sr., for the relatively small amount of $300 (Ste.
Genevieve County Recorder's Office 1833). This transaction now gave Valle ownership of % of Block #9. A
small lot on the southwest comer occupied by Jean Bossier
was never purchased by Valle.
In 1835, at age 74, Jean Baptiste Valee subdivided his
personal property among his four surviving sons. He sold
all of Block #9 to Felix and Odile Valle for $4,525 "in
consideration of natural love and affection for his son
Felix." The property is listed in the transaction as having a
''tone house and some other buildings" (Ste. Genevieve
County Recorder's Office 1835).
Felix and Odile Valle lived in the stone house from
1835 until his death in 1877. Along with his wife, and son,
Louis Felix, they lived on the residential side of the
building, while Felix operated the Menard and Valle store
out of the other portion ofthe building. Felix is also known
for his business interests in the region, including the
organization of the American Mining Company, as well as
a partnership in the operation of the Laclede Iron Works in
St. Louis. Louis Felix died in 1835, at the age of 12, and
Felix Valle died in 1877, at the age of 77. At the time of
his death, Felix Valle's entire estate was valued at more
that $1 million (Jim Baker, personal communication). As
the sole survivor, Odile inherited his fortune, and is
remembered for her $10,000 donation to Ste. Genevieve
Catholic Church, given in honor of her late husband for
the construction of a new cathedral in the town square.
During the next few years the property decreased in
value to $2,500, because Odile sold a portion of the
property to John Bovier. The current property boundaries
were established at that time. Odile continued to live in the
house until her death at age 89 in 1894. Because there was
no heir, the property was sold at Sheriff's auction and it
was purchased by Odile's niece, Emily Rozier. Emily
maintained the property until 1921. In 1894, Emily's son
Frank and his wife moved into the home. In 1921, the
property was sold to Henry Rozier. His son Henry Jr. and
his wife Kathleen moved into the house. They remained in
the house until their deaths, his in 1948, and Kathleen's in
1967. The heirs deeded it to the Missouri State Park Board
in 1970. At this time renovations began, and it was decided
to give the house its 1830s appearance (Hamilton 1990).
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Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
EXCAVATIONS
In June of 1988, the Missouri Department of Natural
Resources-Division of Parks and Recreation and Historic
Preservation initiated excavations on the property.
Fieldwork was performed between October and December
of 1988, under the direction ofM. Colleen Hamilton of the
Archaeological Survey at the University of Missouri, St.
Louis (Hamilton 1990).
The purpose of the exploration was to lean more about
the function of the property through the excavation of the
foundations of two outbuildings. The excavations of 1988
demonstrated that these buildings dated to the 1830s, the
approximate date that Felix Valle purchased the property.
At this time, Valle was active in the firm of Menard and
Valle, and these buildings might have been utilized for this
business. Other discoveries included the identification of a
gravel zone that covered much of the yard, and two notable
features, a possible 19th century privy (designated Feature
6), and a deeply buried pre-1830s feature (Feature 4)
interpreted as a cellar.
Feature 4 was first noticed when differential drying was
observed in the grass east of the Valle house, suggesting
that something was buried at the location. Probing
indicated that deposits extended 7.34 meters (24ft) beyond
the east wall of the structure. Probing along the northsouth axis revealed that the buried deposits extended at
least 9 meters (30 ft) north-south (Hamilton 1990).
Hamilton excavated a 1 x 2 meter test unit over what
was believed to be eastern limits of the deposit in an effort
to determine its boundaries; this was later expanded to a 1
x 3 meter unit. Feature 4 was identified as being buried
beneath 65 to 85 em of fill. It covered abroad area adjacent
to the Valle home, in the east yard about 10 meters from
the house. Three fill episodes were defined and sterile soil
was reached at 35 em in the eastern portion of the unit.
Beneath this level was the feature, which was also
composed of three zones. Hamilton's Zone I above the
feature was the sod level observed elsewhere on the
property. It contained primarily recent debris. Zone II,
above the feature, was composed of a dark yellow brown
clayey silt that contained a moderate to heavy amount of
gravel. Suspended in the fill were several sherds of 19th
century ceramics, faunal remains, nails, brick, glass, and
Chinese porcelain. Hamilton's Zone III was primarily
artifact free, and indications of disturbance were present.
Separate fill episodes could be delineated in the
stratigraphy (Hamilton 1990).
As noted above, the feature was encountered at 32 em.
The top layer of the feature, designated as Zone IV,
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contained limestone rubble, lime mortar, charred wood,
and a few domestic artifucts. A single sherd of hand
painted cobalt blue earthenware was found. A zone of
burned material was located, and the charcoal and ash
indicated in situ burning. Below this lens was loose
limestone rubble and displaced limestone foundation
material. Lime mortar was also recognized. At I 8 em
below this zone, Hamilton (1990) noted a cavity which
appeared to be an abandoned structure containing
successive layers of large slabs of limestone alternating
with limestone rubble. At 85 em, Hamilton encountered a
lens of loose limestone, but because of the massive nature
of the rubble, excavation of this feature ended.
HAMILTON'S INTERPRETATION
Hamilton's impression was that this feature represented
a pre-1830 structure. Her theory was that much of the
upper material had been removed and salvaged for another
building project. The remaining material was collapsed
and deposited into the cellar. After its destruction, the area
was covered with the gravel layer apparent in other test
units on the property. Hamilton found very few temporal
indicators within the sealed deposits of the feature.
However, fragments of architectural debris (mainly mortar
and nails) suggested that the feature was structural.
The artifacts that Hamilton removed from the zones
above the feature were contemporaneous with materials
found elsewhere on the lot. Fragments of a "rope and
bough" edge decorated vessel were found in the gravel
zone above the feature. Hamilton hypothesized that the
gravel layer was laid down prior to the construction of
several outbuildings on the property "between 1820-1830"
and she believed that the cellar feature predated the
construction of the 1818 Valle House by Philipson.
Therefore, Hamilton (1990) states: "It should belong to the
LaPlante occupation. Because the LaPlante house was
probably located on the adjacent lot of Citizens Electric
Corp. then this cellar must belong to one of LaPlante's
outbuildings." This hypothesis will be examined in greater
detail later in this paper.
RECENT EXCAVATIONS
In the summer of 1997, the Middle Mississippi Survey
began a long-term archaeological project on the French
colonial and early American town of Ste. Genevieve,
Missouri. Realizing the potential for archaeological
research, the Felix Valle State Historic Site was selected
for excavation during the Second Annual Ste. Genevieve
Field School, a joint archaeological field school between
Murray State University and Southeast Missouri State
University. During the 1998 field season, excavation
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
concentrated on two features first identified by Hamilton in
1988: a privy (Feature 6) and the cellar (Feature 4) (Wesler
1999).
The 1998 field crew placed a 2 x 3 meter unit in the
vicinity of the cellar to attempt to locate Hamilton's
original excavation unit (Figure 1). The sod was stripped
off and the 1988 unit was relocated. Then the backfill was
removed and the gravel zone was stripped off to reveal
sterile soil on the eastern side thus defining the edge of the
feature. Levels of 10 em were taken out in the beginning
but because some of the limestone fragments were larger
that 10 em, this posed a problem and the excavation was
changed to natural levels following Hamilton's
stratigraphy. Hamilton identified level 3 of the feature as
the bottom and ended the 1988 excavations there, but
Wesler decided to take out another level. Level4 revealed a
band of rubble extending across the floor of the feature that
was believed to be a builders trench (Figure 2). The profile
showed stratigraphy although it was difficult to see during
excavation. Wesler, like Hamilton, noted that there were
variations in the concentration of rubble. At first, the
builders trench was hypothesized as a possible floor of the
cellar, but excavation in 1999 would prove that the floor
was a thin sandy matrix located a few centimeters above
this band of rubble.
The feature was almost devoid of artifacts. Wesler took
over 15,000 pieces and 100 kg oflimestone back to the lab
and left even more on the property. In all, there were about
20 nails, one piece of window glass that was semi-melted,
and 11 sherds of ceramics of which only five were bigger
than 3.14 in. wide. The sherd count included eight pieces
of glazed earthenware, one piece of creamware, and two
very small fragments ofpearlware (Wesler 1999).
Wesler accepted Hamilton's analysis of the gravel zone
being laid about 1825 and believes that the cellar was filled
not long before that. Because so many of the limestone
fragments had mortar adhering to them, the fill appeared
to be from the destruction of a building similar to the
standing house (Wesler 1999).
With the end of the 1998 field season, plans were being
made to return to the site in 1999 for the further
investigation of this feature as well as the privy feature.
The main question was the relationship between this cellar
and the standing 1818 structure. As it seemed, the building
associated with this cellar was razed at the same time of
the construction of the standing structure. This would have
to be further investigated.
The goal of the 1999 field school was to continue the
investigation of the cellar and privy features in the yard of
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2002
the Valle house. The first step in the exploration of the
cellar was to locate the 2 x 3 meter excavation unit from
the 1998 field school. We located the grid and restrung the
location of the 2 x 3 meter unit. We then removed the
backfill from the previous summer and relocated the
bottom of the feature after two days of digging
(Quertermous 1999).
After the floor was cleaned and photographed, a step
left in the previous summer was excavated, and then the
builders trench was removed. No artifacts were found in
the trench. It was our hope that a datable artifact would be
found to give us some idea of when the cellar was
constructed, but it was not. A study of the stratigraphy
revealed that the cellar floor was a thin sandy matrix a few
centimeters above the builders trench. In this unit, it had
already been excavated, so plans were made to put in a I x
2 meter extension on the south side of the 2 x 3 meter unit
from last season.
The extension of the I x 2 meter unit was begun on the
second week of the field school. As expected, the
stratigraphy of this unit was identical with the earlier unit.
At Level III, we encountered the gravel layer believed to be
laid in the 1820s or 1830s. In this level, as well as Level
IV below it, we encountered several artifacts similar to
what was found in the previous excavations, including
several small fragments of creamware, pearlware, redware,
glass, and several pieces of ball clay pipe stems. Level IV
was reached and identified as the first level of the feature.
Levels in the feature were excavated by natural levels, as
we expected to encounter the limestone rubble zone again.
And we did. In this unit, the layer of limestone rubble
extended about 30 em in depth. As noted by Hamilton
(1990) and Wesler (1999), the detritus ranged in size from
gravel to stones weighing 20 lbs. or more. This rubble
extended to the sandy matrix identified as the floor of the
cellar. This level, Level IV, was excavated to reveal the
builders trench which was excavated as well. As in the
previous excavation, this unit was virtually devoid of
artifacts once the feature was encountered. This ended the
excavation ofthe cellar.
HYPOTHESES
After examining available historical documents, as well
as the artifact assemblage from the cellar, the construction
date is believed to be pre-1820, which makes it during the
LaPlante or Philipson occupation of the property. Three
hypotheses exist for the role of the cellar on the VaHe
property: (I) it was constructed during the LaPlante
occupation of the property, where it served an unknown
purpose, possibly for storage under one of his outbuildings,
as proposed by Hamilton; (2) the cellar is from the original
127
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
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Volume 17
2002
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Philipson 1818 stone house, and the present building was
built during the Valle occupation ofthe property; or (3) the
cellar was built as an early phase of Philipson's
construction project, or the construction location of the
128
house was relocated a few meters to the west, and the cellar
was left to fill with debris and construction detritus.
Hypothesis I. Very little is known about the LaPlante
Ohio VaUey Historical Archaeology
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habitation of the property aside from documentary
evidence. As mentioned above, it is believed that
LaPlante's house was located on the adjacent lot, now the
location of the Citizen's Electric Corporation. However,
because he owned all of this portion of the property, it is
possible that that several of his dependencies could have
been located on this lot.
Investigations into early French Colonial architecture
reveal that a typical house, like the Bequette-Ribaud house,
would have been of vertical log construction, with post on
sill or post in the ground architecture, with a cellar beneath
the central room used for botanical storage. Average size
would range from 12 x 15 ft to 18 x 19ft (Franzwa 1968).
As the original LaPlante dwelling mentioned in the 1783
will was 15 x 20 ft, it was previously thought by the author
that the cellar was a remnant of LaPlante's house and
previous inferences as to its location were incorrect. The
house was knocked down and the cellar filled in with the
construction ofthe 1818 stone house by Philipson.
However, at least three factors presently make me
hesitant to accept this hypothesis. First, if the cellar
belonged to LaPlante's house, why were there no early
artifacts in the cellar attesting to its French Colonial
construction? Second, we know that LaPlante's second
wife outlived him and remained on the property, selling
halfto Philipson in 1818. If she sold the half on which her
house was located, she would have needed to build a new
dwelling. It is highly unlikely that she would sell the half
129
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
with her house on it. Third, it has also been taken into
consideration that this could be the foundation of
LaPlante's barn. However, I find it highly unlikely that the
cellar from a storage building would be so void of artifacts.
Also, this building would have been only a few meters
from Merchant Street, one of the main streets of Colonial
Ste. Genevieve. Accordingly, it is unlikely that this was
LaPlante's barn. LaPlante was wealthy by colonial
standards, making his money in the fur trade and the
refining of sugar (Hamilton 1990). A wealthy man would
not build a barn 5 meters from one of the busiest streets in
town. Because of the humidity and heat, the stench of farm
animals and the waste they produce would waft into the
street. Any landowner would place his barn at the back of
his property. Evidence for this can be found in Eckberg
(1985:284), in which Henry Breckenridge makes another
observance:
Although there is something like regularity of
streets, and the houses are built in front of them,
they do not adjoin, while the gardens, orchards, and
stables, occupy a considerable extent of ground.
Each house with its appurtenances, has the
appearance of one of our farm yards. All kinds of
cattle, cows, hogs, and sheep mingle with the
passengers in the streets.
This passage describes the individual town lots as more
or less individual rural estates. The comparison of the lots
to a farmyard gives us evidence that odors associated with
a farm yard would be present. The only property farmed
was le grand champs (the big field), except for vegetable or
herb gardens found on the individual properties. By
reading this account, and using it to interpret the
information from the LaPlante will, we can get a picture of
the LaPlante lot: a typical self sufficient town lot, with its
own barn, orchard, outbuildings, and possibly a slave
cabin.
Hvoothesis II. Could the present structure not be the
original 1818 stone house? It is highly unlikely that after
Jean Baptiste Valle purchased the property from Philipson
that he would raze any structures on the property and
construct new ones. Although Valle was very wealthy, the
present building on the property would have adequately
served both his mercantile needs as well as a future
residential dwelling for his son, Felix. In my opinion, if the
above were to occur a mention of the construction of a new
building would have been found in the Valle papers, as he
kept quite detailed records of all his business holdings and
transactions.
This idea was fueled by the discovery of several
lawsuits between Philipson and his builders. The first,
Ratte vs. Philipson (Ste. Genevieve County Court 1819),
130
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2002
was by his stone mason, Julian Ratte, over the payment for
construction materials. Documents from this March 1819
case give the dimensions of the house, as well as the agreed
method of payment. Phi 1ipson agreed to pay Ratte $1 for
every perch of stone used in the house. A perch is a unit of
masonry measurement that is 1 ft high, 1 ft wide, and 1 ft
deep. The original payment method was $2,000. Of the
$2,000, half was to be paid by Philipson in cash, and the
other half in goods and merchandise from his store. Ratte
sued because Philipson still owed the $1,000 cash. This
debt leads me to speculate that Philipson might have come
upon financial difficulties. Philipson included an inventory
of goods purchased from his store by Ratte on the $1,000
credit. These items included: whiskey, gun powder, fine
muslin, fine cotton, wine, imported silk gloves, turtle shell
combs, and fine dress material. This leads me to deduce
two things: that Mrs. Ratte was making a number of these
purchases, and Mr. Ratte liked his whiskey.
The documents from another case, Butcher vs.
Philipson (Ste. Genevieve County Court 1820), mention a
house of 1 story: ''The said Michael and Sebastian Butcher
agree to build a stone house of one story high for said
Philipson of which said building has already commenced."
The Butcher case will be discussed below in greater detail
because of its importance to the dating of the site. The
Felix Valle house is one full story, with a second story of
low sloping ceilings, much like an attic. Our theory was
that the present two story house was the one built by Valle,
and Philipson's house was one story that would have been
razed. Accordingly, the cellar (Feature 4) may be viewed
as a remnant of the single story Philipson house. However,
upon consulting with several historic preservationists and
architectural historians, I was informed that according to
19th century standards the present dwelling could be
considered one story because the second story was not a
true second story (Bonnie Stepeno~ personal communication).
Further evidence of this can be seen in an examination
ofthe Sanborn Insurance maps of the property, where from
1894-1929 it was designated as a two story, one and one
half story, and even a one story building, depending on
which map one examines. Finally, the architectural style of
the standing structure is from the Federal period, a typical
colonial American style familiar to Philadelphia, Jacob
Philipson's hometown. I feel that a building of this style
could only be built by someone who was not influenced by
French Colonial architectural style. If the building were
built by Jean Baptiste Valle (a man who lived all of his 87
years in Ste. Genevieve) it would be assumed that the
house would show French architectural influence, like
Valle's own house. For these reasons, this hypothesis was
rejected as well.
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
Hypothesis III. This hypothesis was proposed by John
Pafford, my research partner in this project. He proposed
that the cellar was built as an early phase of Philipson's
construction project, then the construction location of the
house was altered or relocated a few meters to the west,
and the cellar was filled with debris and construction
detritus.
The court case of Butcher vs. Philipson (Ste. Genevieve
County Court 1820) gives us some insight into this
possibility. On February 17, 1821, Sebastian and Michael
Butcher, two contractors in the town of Ste. Genevieve
sued Philipson for additional payment in the construction
of his house. The Butchers claimed that Philipson had not
paid additional fees for their services but Philipson brought
a receipt to court which stated:
Received in Ste. Genevieve on July 10, 1818, from
Jacob Philipson, Sixty-nine dollars and seventy-five
cents as payment in full for our work on a part of a
cellar now demolishing, also for damages for lost
time and other demands what so ever, on account of
the above mentioned mason work so demolished an
entirely distinct and separate from a building now
carrying on.
This above testimony gives invaluable insight on what
happened. Whatever building then present on the site was
separate from the stone house Philipson was having
constructed. He paid the Butchers $69.75 to demolish the
building and fill in the cellar. With the detritus resulting
from the construction of Philipson's new house. This
hypothesis seems to be the most feasible of the three. The
documentary evidence gives us a date for the destruction of
the cellar, thus we can establish 1818 as the terminus ante
quem for the filling ofthe feature. We know from records
that Philipson often had financial troubles, and this may
have caused him to slightly alter his building plans. If
work had already begun on the house, a cellar would have
already been dug. If Philipson wanted the house smaller,
the already dug cellar might have been abandoned and
slowly filled with construction detritus produced from the
trimming of the limestone blocks used to construct the
house. This could also explain why the feature was devoid
of artifacts. If the above events occurred, then the time
frame would have been a year or less, which would be
archaeologically invisible, except for the presence of this
feature.
This document tells us that the cellar and the structural
features that would have been associated with it predated
the Philipson's construction of the stone house. This means
that the cellar is the remnant of an earlier construction
attempt, or it is pre-Philipson. We know that Philipson had
a mercantile business in another location in the town, and
Volume 17
2002
he often had financial troubles. There is the possibility that
he could have begun the project at an earlier time,
constructing the cellar, left it open for a time, and may
have change his mind when he had enough money to
resume the project. This could explain why there was no
evidence that the cellar was ever used.
Another variation of this theory is that Philipson paid
the Butchers for the destruction of a pre-1818 structure and
cellar on the property. This leads to another possible
conclusion: that the cellar is pre-Philipson thus dating
from the LaPlante occupation of the property. However, if
the cellar was from LaPlante's occupation, I think we
should have been able to see evidence that the cellar was
used.
The accepted theory for the laying of the gravel layer is
that it occurred during the Valle occupation of the
property. Because the gravel layer sealed the context of the
cellar, the construction date for the feature has to be earlier
than the laying of the gravel. The artifacts found in and
under the gravel layer were ceramics which postdated
1820, giving the gravel layer a terminus post quem of 1820.
It is plausible that the gravel layer was laid down over this
side of the property by Valle sometime in the 1830s to
make this area more accessible to wagon traffic related to
the mercantile business on the property.
CONCLUSION
Until now, Hypothesis Three seems to be the most
plausible hypothesis for the construction of the cellar. The
documentary evidence gives us some clues as to
Philipson's construction of the 1818 house, as evident in
the court cases, as well as the destruction of the cellar. In
my opinion, we could only get a true idea of the purpose of
the cellar by excavating the entire feature. However, one
has to question the feasibility of spending at least four
more field seasons excavating this feature in hopes of
finding one single artifact that gives us some idea as to the
construction date of the feature. There are still other
questions that remain unanswered about the occupation of
the property and about the transition of Ste. Genevieve
from a French colonial settlement to an American city. The
Felix Valle State Historic Site property is an excellent
example of a typical new town Ste. Genevieve property that
evolved from a typical rural town lot into a place of
business in the newly acquired Missouri territory.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Mr. John Pafford, my research
partner in this project, for spending hours with me pouring
over documents in search of any clue relating to the cellar.
I would also like to thank the Missouri Department of
131
Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology
Natural Resources, for allowing us to excavate at the Felix
Valle State Historic Site. Dr. Kit Wesler, director of the
past two field schools, provided data on the 1998 and 1999
:field school excavations. Drs. Carol Morrow and Bonnie
Stepenoff of Southeast Missouri State University (Cape
Girardeau, Missouri) oversaw our documentary research in
the archives. Mr. Jim Baker, site administrator of the Felix
Valle State Historic Site, gave us innumerable leads in our
research, and Ms. Renae Ferris informed us of the lawsuits
of Philipson vs. Butcher and Philipson vs. Ratte. Lastly,
Dr. Therese St. Paul was very helpful in the translation of
the LaPlante will. This paper could not have been written
without the work of the 1998 and 1999 field schools, in
which I participated.
REFERENCES CITED
Basler, Lucille.
1980 The District of Ste. Genevieve. 1725-1980.
Vedette Publishing, Greenfield, Missouri.
1983 Pioneers of Old Ste. Genevieve. Place not given,
Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
Boyle, Susan C.
1987 Did She Generally Decide? Women in Ste.
Genevieve, 1750-1805. William and Mary
Quarterly. 44(4):775-789.
Brackenridge, Henry
1834 Recollections of Persons and Places in the
West. James Kay and Co, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
Eckberg, Carl J .
1985 Colonial Ste. Genevieve. An Adventure on the
Mississippi Frontier. Patrice Press, Tucson, Arizona.
Ehrlich. Walter
1988 The First Jews of St. Louis. Missouri Historical
Review 83(1):57-76.
Franzwa, Gregory M.
1967 The Story of Old Ste. Genevieve. Patrice Press,
Tucson, Arizona.
Hamilton, Colleen M.
1990 Archaeological and Historical Investigations at
the Felix Valle State Historic Site, St. Genevieve
County, Missouri. University of Missouri
Archaeology Survey, St. Louis.
Morrow, Kristen Kalen
1987 Ste. Genevieve's First Family: A Chronicle of
the Valles. Gateway Heritage 8(2):24-33.
Peterson, Charles
1941 Early Ste. Genevieve and its Architecture.
Missouri Historical Review 35:213.
Quertermous, Grant
1999 Field Notes from the Excavation of Feature 4,
132
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2002
Felix Valle SHS (23 StG190). Ms. in possession of
the author.
Saint Paul, Therese (translator)
2000 Marianne La Plante Will. Ms. on :file,
Archaeology Program, Murray State University,
Murray, Kentucky.
Schroeder, Walter A.
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Genevieve District, 1750-1806. In: Cultural
Geography ofMissouri (Michael Roark, editor).
South East Missouri State University, Cape
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Ste. Genevieve Archives
1799 Estate Records: Mrs. Nicholas Laplante
(Marianne Fortin). Executor, Louis LaPlante. Ms.
153, Folio 217. Microfilm copies on file Ste.
Genevieve Public Library, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
Ste. Genevieve County Court
1819 Case #36. Julian Ratte vs. Jacob Philipson. Case
files. Office of the County Court Clerk, Ste.
Genevieve, Missouri.
1820 Michael and Sebastian Butcher vs. Jacob
Philipson. Case files (case number unknown).
Office of the County Court Clerk, Ste. Genevieve,
Missouri.
Ste. Genevieve County Recorder's Office (Deeds)
1818a Book C-032 Nicholas LaPlante to Jacob
Philipson.
1818b Book C-034 Jacob Philipson to Nicholas
LaPlante.
1818c Book C-130. Parfait DuFour deed dated
November 15, 1818.
1824 Book D-067 Jacob Philipson to Jean Baptiste
Valle.
1830 Book D-314 M. A. LaPlante to Franyois and
Odile Janis.
1833 Book D-420 Fran9ois and Odile Janis to I. B.
Valle Sr.
1835 Book G-499. Jean Baptise Valle to Felix and
Odile Valle.
Wesler, Kit
1999 Excavations in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, 1998:
The Felix Valle and Benjamin Shaw Houses. Paper
presented at 14th Annual Symposium on Ohio
Valley Urban and Historical Archaeology,
Springfield, Illinois.
Williamsen, Tora Lorraine
1990 An Analysis of Colonial Town Planning in
North American and its Influence on Ste.
Genevieve, Missouri. MA thesis, University of
Missouri, Columbia.