County of marker: Warren County
Location of marker: One St. & Katy Trail State Park, Trailhead @ mile marker 77.7, Marthasville
Marker erected: 2014
Marker erected by Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Marker Text:
1799 . . . . . . . . . .
The Village of La Charrette
Long before Europeans settled this area, Native American tribes including the Missouria [Misura], Osage, Sac and Fox used this land as their home or hunting grounds. The French, followed by the Spanish, were the first Europeans to obtain this territory from the natives prior to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. At the confluence of Charrette Creek and the Missouri River, the French established a settlement in the later 1700s known as the Village of La Charrette. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark noted on their expedition on the Missouri River that this village was the westernmost settlement of white men.
Daniel Boone and Family
The Boone family moved to Missouri from Kentucky in 1799. They established a settlement near the village of La Charrette called Callaway Post after Daniel Boone's son-in-law Flanders Callaway. The post consisted of a group of cabins, arraigned to provide security from Indian attacks. During the War of 1812, Rangers led by Nathan Boone defended the village. The Missouri River's changing currents flooded the village a few years later. In 1971, the Callaway's two-story log house was dismantled and eventually reconstructed at Boonefield Village near Defiance, MO.
Settlement of Marthasville
Dr. John Young first advertised lots for sale in a town named for his wife Martha in 1817. The town was established about half a mile east of the Village of La Charrette. Marthasville, a shipping and trading point, was slow to grow. In 1833, there were about six houses. German immigration from 1834 to the 1850s increased the population to 100.
Germans and other immigrants settled in the hills surrounding the small town and cleared the land for agriculture, making farming the economic base for the area. Farmers focused on corn, wheat, hemp and livestock as the major source of income.
1834 . . . . . . . . . .
William Wells Brown
African-American novelist and playwright William Wells Brown grew up in slavery in Missouri. Though born in Kentucky, he spent his youth in the Marthasville and St. Louis areas. Dr. John Young, founder of Marthasville, was his master for a time. Brown escaped from slavery in 1834 and later became a respected speaker and author. His novel Clotel, published in London in 1853, is considered to be the first novel written by an African-American.
Schaaf's Mill
C.H. Schaaf operated the first horse mill in Warren County in 1841 and replaced it with the first steam mill in 1854. Schaaf's son-in-law, Herman H. Bierbaum, bought and operated the mill for many years until handing the business over to his son Carl in 1905. In all, the mill had been in operation for over 70 years when it was shut down circa 1913.
Skirmish at the Briscoe-Pillep Place
During the Civil war, Southern sympathizers from the surrounding area met north of Marthasville at a farmhouse that was owned by Dr. Warner Briscoe and his wife Jane. It was there that ring leader Frances G. Henderson and the Southerners gathered to plot their course of action against Federal troops.
On March 25, 1862, Union troops discovered Henderson and his men near the Briscoe farm and chased the Southerners as they retreated to the house. Some reports said that Mrs. Briscoe provided coats and bonnets to help most of the men escape disguised as women. Henderson opted to arm himself and make a stand in a nearby bean field.
When Union troops approached the house, a shot fired from inside killed a teenage Union militiaman. The Federals returned fire. Henderson took aim from the field only to be fired on from behind by 15 Northerners. He was mortally wounded while fleeing to his horse.
1892 . . . . . . . . . .
Ups and Downs of a River Town
Marthasville was the main landing on the Missouri River for Warren County in 1840. The Lagamann Addition, a tract of land west of Marthasville, expanded the town in 1892 alongside the tracks of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT of "Katy") Railroad.
The town's proximity to the Missouri River caused occasional misfortune. Several floods devastated Marthasville. The Missouri overflowed its banks significantly in 1844 and water-logged the town again in 1951. The flood affected 30,000 farms between Kansas City and St. Louis. Floods saturated the town several times thereafter. The worst flooding occurred in 1993 as a result of a previous wet fall and rapid spring snowmelt accompanied by heavy rainfall.
The Lichtenberg Legacy
Henry August Lichtenberg established his furniture business in Marthasville at the turn of the 20th century. Little did he know he would begin a family tradition that would last for generations. Lichtenberg added undertaking to his tools of trade when he began to use his woodworking skills to furnish caskets and opened a funeral home.
Henry's son Fred followed in his father's footsteps, joining the family business after graduation from St. Louis College of Embalming in 1905. One of the few embalmers in the area. Fred frequently traveled on the MKT to provide his services. He obtained the funeral home's first motorized hearse in the late 1920s or early 1930s. These vehicles also served as ambulances to transport the sick and injured to the train depot. Patients rode the Katy Railroad to a St. Charles hospital for treatment.
- 1928: Fred's wife Adeline became one of the first licensed women embalmers in Missouri
- 1942: Fred and Adeline's son Delmont took the state embalming exams prior to serving in the Army during WWII
- 1988: Delmont and Pearl's daughter Kathryn became the fourth generation to operate the funeral home.