Tracking the Tigers and A Tear Stained Eye

23 January 2008

I did another round of telephoning based on the research I did yesterday. I called City Hall, and they said they would have marriage records, and I should look on the Secretary of State's website to see what was available. http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/boards.asp

I found death records for

• Frank Koken 2 yrs M W St. Louis
• Koke, John 30 Y M 30-Jul-1854 St. Louis

I found a naturalization record for

• Koker, William Germany St. Louis City 1858

Second & Minors Papers Sub Series Naturalization Cards County St. Louis City
Reel Number C 25816 Volume J Page 46

I called the Catholic diocese, but could not get them to answer the phone. I also called Concordia Cemetery which the guy at Trinity had told me was the Lutheran cemetery at that time. He said he had one Koke who was in Section 1, Row 19, grave 12A. This was the old section of the cemetery and he wasn't sure if there was a grave marker. He called me back later to say he went out to the site and that there was no marker.

After lunch, we left and went to track down the tigers and go to Ste. Genevieve.

The information we had on the area said there was a "National Tiger Sanctuary" with five tigers. I found this hard to believe. I took Bob out on all the alphabet roads - We went up D, crossing OO and K and C and several one lane bridges

One way bridge

Small two lane bridge

until we got to Y which we took through St. Francis until we got to the tiger sanctuary. But the gate was shut and there didn't appear to be anyone around.

National Tiger Sanctuary sign at the entrance

House beyond the gate

Later, we got information from the lady at the Ste. Genevieve Visitors Center. She said that the Joe Scott, Sr. who owns most of the things in the area (Crown Valley Winery, Crown Point Golf Course, Crown Valley Wine Store, Eagle Lake Golf Club, Crown Ridge, Crown Equipment etc etc including the Crown Point Links condo where we are staying) had a fight with the person running the tiger sanctuary, because the tiger sanctuary caretakers wouldn't let Scott keep the tigers at the B&B which advertises them as an extra perk of staying there. So then Scott, went and got some tigers of his own.

Metal tiger sculpture

The internet says:" For a basic tour to see the animals it is for $8 an adult and $4 a child. Or schedule the Siberian VIP Tour for $75-per-person "eye-to-eye experience, behind-the-scenes " option which includes a visit to the photography platform and the living classroom where guests can feed the tigers, if it's their regular feeding time. Call 24 hours in advance."

So actually there were two tiger sites near Farmington. Who knew?

We continued to the town of Ste. Genevieve. First we visited Memorial Cemetery in Ste. Genevieve.

Cemetery information

Marie A St. Gemme on the right

This is known as Missouri's oldest cemetery. You can stroll through the park and read the interpretive panels

and look at the graves of the early French settlers (bring your French phrase book).

Left Felicite LeClere--1785-1824 and right Melanie Leclere- infant daughter of JS and M Leclere

A la Memoire de Mariela Poree Laport-Neuve de Louis

Group of stones of the Valle family

Ci Git (here lies) Ill de J. B. Valle and Constance Rozier - Died Aug. 2, 1878

Cross in the cemetery

This National Landmark site is managed and maintained by the Foundation for Restoration of Ste. Genevieve, Inc, which is a non-profit organization striving to protect and preserve the area's historic heritage and its structures.

Restoration Information sign

It has about 300 monuments although there are supposed to be over 4000 people buried there. The cemetery was closed to further interments in 1881, so these are old tombstones - many of them in French. Some of the stones were broken and lying on the ground

Antoine Recole - age 72 years

SACRED to Hannah Bisch relict of Albert Bisch Sen

and some had been repaired in inappropriate ways.

Badly repaired stone

This land was originally given to the 'Catholic Citizens' of Ste. Genevieve by the Spanish Government. Between 3500 and 5000 Catholics, non-Catholics, Native Americans and African American slaves are buried here. It is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Free

I wandered around in Memorial Cemetery there I found a monument to Lewis Linn which was dedicated by the legislature. I was curious so I looked him up.

He studied medicine and served in the war of 1812 as a surgeon. After the war, he located his practice in Sainte Genevieve in the Missouri Territory. He was elected to the State senate in 1827, appointed to the French Land Claims Commission in Missouri in 1832; appointed and subsequently elected as a Jacksonian (later Democrat) to the US Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Alexander Buckner. He was chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims (Twenty-fourth through Twenty-sixth Congresses), was on the Committee on Agriculture (Twenty-seventh Congress) .

Dedicated to the memory of E. Lewis Linn by the legislature of Missouri

When we left the cemetery we saw a ferry. The Mississippi is a big river in this area, and there are limited bridges. Ferries are an optional alternative.

Road down by the river

There are six ferries in this area of the Mississippi, and the Ste. Genevieve-Modoc Ferry is one of them. People use it as a short cut to Illinois.

Ste. Genevieve-Modoc Ferry sign

The Modoc Landing is accessible from IL-3 and IL-155 in Randolph County on the Illinois side. The ferry runs during daylight hours approximately every fifteen minutes and a fee is charged. Last I looked it was $20 round-trip per vehicle (passengers included in the price). The other ferries are Calhoun County, IL; Canton, MO, Grafton, IL and Dorena,Missouri to Hickman,Kentucky

• Note: ferries might not be operating due to flood conditions or ice. Call to check

Although this is a car ferry, I couldn't get Bob to try it. When we drove east from here, we used a bridge.

On the way to town, we stopped so I could get a picture of the flood marker. The high point was 49.5 feet above the river and where the marker was on a slight bluff, it was about 10 feet in the air. St. Genevieve, a National Historical Landmark, was recently included as one of the 11 most endangered places in the nation by the National Trust for Historic Preservation because of the flood danger. The town is not yet out of danger because St. Genevieve cannot afford to pay the 25% of the cost for the Corps of Engineers to build a levee to protect the town

Floor marker pole

Founded by French migrants around 1735, Ste. Genevieve was the first permanent European settlement in present-day Missouri. It was in the area of the pre-Louisiana Purchase called New France. The town was named for Ste. Genevieve who was the patron saint of Paris.

In 1762 at the time of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, France ceded the west bank to Spain. Then in 1763 the land east of the river was ceded by France to Great Britain, so French settlers moved Ste. Genevieve across the river. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, English and Germans also migrated to the village, but it still retained the French culture and heritage.

Located on the riverbank south of the present site, the town was wiped out in the spring of 1785 when the Mississippi burst its banks in a terrible flood. Still known as L'anne des grandes eaux (the year of the great waters), the 1785 flood inundated the village to its rooftops. Villagers began moving two miles north to Nouvelle Ste. Genevieve (or Les petites cotes, "the little hills,").

. There's even been a song written about it. "Tear Stained Eye," deals with the 1993 flood.
CHORUS:
Can you deny there's nothing greater
Nothing more than the traveling hands of time
St. Genevieve can hold back the water
But saints don't bother with a tear-stained eye

We went to the Great River Road Interpretive and Welcome Center

Visitor Center or Welcome Center

and saw the CD/film about the area,

Shaw House

Interior from the video tape

inside of church from Visitor's Center video

Historian on cemetery -film Visitors Center

looked around the museum,

US Army Snag Boat removing a Snag

and used the facilities (where there was a sign not to put anything into the "stools"),

Sign in the bathroom

The City of St. Genevievre is on the west bank of the Mississippi, south of St. Louis. Two waterways,(north and south Gabouri Creek)

Junkyard by the creek

cross the district - neither of them currently navigable. The Historic District contains buildings representing the city history from 1790 to the mid 20th century. There are a total of 824 buildings (including outbuildings) - 78% of these buildings are historically significant. There are 29 property types represented in the district including French vertical log houses, German brick buildings, Anglo-American stone houses, Federal and Greek Revival style houses, Italianate, Queen Anne/Victorians, foursquare houses, Bungalow/Craftsman and churches, bridges, government and educational buildings.

220 Merchant Street; Abraham Newfield House

La Maison Guibourd-Valle

Fence around the Louis Bolduc House - 188 Merchant Street Felix Valle house - 1818

150 South Main Street; John McArthur House

Joseph Bogy 180

The oldest homes are of significant historical importance as they are built with the wood/logs that make up the walls sitting vertically from the early 1700's. It is the largest collection of such buildings in the U.S. We drove around town and I took photos of the outside of the buildings such as the Felix Vallé State Historic Site, the Bauvais-Amoureux House and Ste. Genevieve Catholic Church. Most of the buildings are closed in the winter.

County Courthouse

Post Office

The parish of Ste. Genevieve was officially started in January 1759 by Jesuits who came from Quebec. The current church was built around the previous stone church which was built at this site. The foundations of the previous log and stone churches are still visible in the basement of the present church.

Church from across the street

Church steeple

The present church was designed by Francis Xavier Weiss, a legendary pastor who served the parish of Ste. Genevieve from 1865 until 1900

Monument "dedicated to the unborn beside church

We drove on back to Farmington. Bob had bought a pizza when he went to Walmart, but there was no pan to cook it in or pizza cutter, so he stopped at Walmart again and bought them. Then we went to the White Castle and got hamburgers.

Outside of building in Missouri

We had never eaten at a White Castle, and actually I think I got it mixed up with the Little Tavern or the White Tower, both of which were old time local chains. The White Castle has a very distinctive architecture.

Inside White Castle

They sell Slyders which is a square hamburger - the Slyders are small which is why a Crave Case (where you get multiple Slyders) does make some sense. We didn't know how small the burgers were and I think they threw in some extra for what we ordered. We took them back to the condo to eat.

Slyders and Bob's hand

The somewhat blurred photo of three Slyders has Bob's hand in it for a size comparison.