More Information on Charles Gratiot:

Charles Gratiot was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1752. He was a descendant of French Huguenots who fled Normandy to escape religious persecution. After spending time with an uncle in London, England to learn the mercantile trade, Gratiot traveled to Montreal, Canada to live and work with another uncle involved in the fur trade. Gratiot traveled widely in the West on his uncle's business, then moved to the Illinois country in 1777 to go into business for himself. He opened a store at Cahokia and became one of the most influential merchant-traders of the Illinois country. He assisted George Rogers Clark during the Revolutionary War, later claiming the sum of $8,000, for which he was never reimbursed. In 1781 he moved across the river to St. Louis, to set up business and to take a bride. On June 26, 1781, Gratiot married Victoire Chouteau (b. 1764), a sister of Auguste and Pierre Chouteau (see Blocks 33 and 34). The alliance was an important one, with both Gratiot and the Chouteaus representing powerful mercantile interests. The Gratiots had 13 children, but only nine survived to adulthood.

From 1783 to 1794 Gratiot traveled widely, trying to expand his fur trading interests, but nearly bankrupting himself instead with impossibly grandiose schemes. He visited Virginia, where he tried to get reimbursement for the $8,000 he expended in assisting George Rogers Clark. Instead of money he was given land grants in Kentucky and other considerations. He also traveled to France, Switzerland, England and Canada. After swearing off his attempts at being an entrepreneur in Europe, Gratiot returned to St. Louis, where he accumulated large amounts of real estate, and also had interests in milling, salt making, farming, distilling, tanning and mining. His daughters married into the Chouteau family and formed other important alliances with the leading families of the town, including the Labbadies and Cabannes. His daughter Louise was known as the most beautiful woman in St. Louis; she married Jules De Mun in 1813. Gratiot's son, Charles Gratiot, Jr., was one of the earliest graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served during the War of 1812, and eventually became a brigadier general in the Army Corps of Engineers.

Charles Gratiot hosted William Clark when he made an official visit to St. Louis in 1795 for the U.S. Army. Gratiot also assisted Meriwether Lewis in 1803-04 as a translator and witness in his dealings with the Spanish Governor, Charles Dehault Delassus. On March 9-10, 1804, Gratiot signed the transfer document which delivered Upper Louisiana from Spain to the United States as an official witness (see Block 6). He also rode with Meriwether Lewis overland to link up with the Corps of Discovery at St. Charles on May 20, 1804. After the American takeover of the province Gratiot was appointed as judge of the court of common pleas, justice of the peace and clerk of the board of land commissioners. He died of a stroke in St. Louis on April 20, 1817, leaving vast amounts of real estate to his widow and eight surviving children. Victoire Chouteau Gratiot died in 1825.