Auguste Chouteau

Auguste Chouteau
Auguste Chouteau
Born	(1749-09-07)7 September 1749 New Orleans, Louisiana (New France)
Died	24 February 1829(1829-02-24) (aged 79) St. Louis, Missouri. United States

René Auguste Chouteau, Jr. (September 7, 1749 or September 26, 1750 in New Orleans, French Louisiana – February 24, 1829 in St. Louis, Missouri), also known as Auguste Chouteau, was the founder of St. Louis, Missouri, a successful fur trader and a politician. He and his partner had a monopoly for many years of fur trade with the large Osage tribe on the Missouri River. In addition, he had numerous business interests in St. Louis and was well-connected with the various rulers: French, Spanish and American.

On September 20, 1748, Marie-Thérèse Bourgeois married René Auguste Chouteau, who had recently immigrated from France to Louisiana. Rene Chouteau was described as an innkeeper, liquor dealer, and pastry chef. He was born in the village of L'Hermenault in September 1723, and was nearly ten years older than Bourgeois. Auguste Chouteau was the only child of Marie-Therese and Rene, born in either September 1749 or September 1750. The elder Chouteau purportedly abused Marie Therese, and when he abandoned her and their son, led Marie Therese to return to her per-matrimonial home. Some scholars say that she returned to the convent. Others believe that she returned to her step-father's and mother's house. In either case, a child named "Rene" was baptized on that date to René Chouteau and Marie-Thérèse. However, the Auguste Chouteau who founded St. Louis, Missouri, often was referred to as Rene Auguste, but his birth date was listed in family records as September 26, 1750. Family members in the 19th century used the traditional date (September 26, 1750) for Chouteau's grave marker in Calvary Cemetery. In René Chouteau's will, he referred to two living sons in 1776. Thus, it is possible a second son existed. In that case, it is likely that the second son died after René Chouteau left Louisiana.

By 1758, Marie-Thérèse (known as Madame Chouteau or Widow Chouteau) had met and began living with Pierre de Laclède Liguest (commonly known as Laclede) in a common-law marriage. Kieran Doherty suggests that Laclede informally adopted Auguste Chouteau, providing him with an education in one of the Catholic schools of New Orleans. Regardless of whether formal education was provided Chouteau, it was clear that by his early teens, he had a respect for learning and some form of education (possibly under the direct tutelage of Laclede). By the early 1760s, Chouteau worked as an assistant in obtaining supplies for Laclède's partnership business with Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, and served as a clerk in Laclede's journey up the Mississippi River to establish another fur-trading post.