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The Earliest Records - Gladys Griesenauer
The Dardenne Prairie area of St. Charles District, later St. Charles County, was a well-established prairie farming community when the Catholic Church had its beginnings. Some Spanish Land Grants are dated as early as 1799, many in the early 1800's. It was an area that was easily accessible, bordered on the north by the Peruque Creek (Barok in German), and the Dardenne River, later Dardenne Creek, on the south; passing almost directly through the middle was The Big Road, later The Booneslick Road, which is now Highway N. Legend tells us that Daniel Boone began this trail, but many believe it was an early animal or Indian trail, over which Boone traveled.
In 1808, Mr. William Clark passed through this area on his way West to establish Fort Osage. In his journal he notes "passed several branches of the Dardan Creek, a branch of the Mississippi, through a "butiful" (sic) high rolling country interspersed with plains of high grass, most of them rich and fertile."
Many natural springs flowed along the rocky ridges and hillsides of the small streams and branches leading to Dardenne Creek, providing water for survival. Also, mills for grinding grain dotted the shores of the two creeks.
The best description of Dardenne Prairie is contained in a letter written July 12, 1912, to Dr. J. C. Edwards from Mr. Onward Bates, son of Judge Barton and Caroline Bates, grandson of Mr. Edward Bates, President Lincoln's Attorney General.
"Early impressions are the strongest, and these are emphasized by the stirring events which occured (sic) during my boyhood. I can distinctly remember Dardenne Prairie and its people, dating back for several years previous to the distressful Civil War. The picture of this prairie land which lingers with me, shows one of the most desirable places for living that i (sic) have seen in any country. Family life was patriarchal. Residences were scattered and located according to the desires of the owners. Sufficient land was under cultivation to provide subsistence for the people who were privileged to live upon it, and the remainder, which consisted of undulating prairie and timber lands, was enclosed as if it were intended that homesteads should be separated by natural parks.
Nature was lavish in its provision for man and beast, grass was plentiful for the latter, and an abundant variety of wild fruits and nuts with an apparently unlimited supply of four-footed and feathered game would maintain life and provide clothing for men, if they chose to live as did their predecessors, the Indians. Flowers blossmed (sic) on the prairie stretches and in the woodlands in many varieties, which seem to have disappeared as the country became fully settled. There was no rugged scenery, but Dardenne Prairie was a lovely and restful country seemingly designed for the use and enjoyment of its inhabitants, and an ideal location for homes. And such homesteads. Buildings in primitive and simple style, occupied by large families with quarters never too small nor too crowded to interfere with an unbounded hospitality. Slavery on Dardenne Prairie was a name rather than a condition, and the visitor to one of these homesteads was sure of a genial welcome from white and black, as the Negroes adopted the names and held all things in common with their masters, including their virtues and their manners.
The Civil War came on with its bitterness and all of those good people were ranged, some on one side and some on the other. Some of them moved away, and among them all lines of separation were strictly drawn. The war exhausted the country, and when its bloody term was ended the old conditions were not restored. There were new methods of living, and relatively new people in every locality, and a new era was established. We may be grateful that the enmity of those war days was buried with those who so bravely took part in that great struggle, and that those who were willing to meet at one time in mortal combat, are now reconciled in a friendship made strong by remembrance of the trials which led to it. The war and all that preceded it is but a memory, and we live under the new conditions which are, doubtless, better than the old ones. Being a Missourian, born on Dardenne Prairie in St. Charles County, the one place in the world I would choose for such an event, I cannot be expected to refrain from offering my tribute, to such a favored portion of the earth's surface.
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