Pierre Laclède

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Pierre Laclède

Pierre Laclède or Pierre Laclède Liguest (c.1724-1778) was a French fur trader, who, with his young assistant and "stepson" Auguste Chouteau, founded St. Louis in 1764.

Laclède was sponsored by the New Orleans merchant Gilbert Antoine Maxent in 1763 to construct a trading post near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Laclede and Chouteau set out from New Orleans in August, arriving at the confluence in December. The confluence area was too marshy to build a town, so they selected a site 18 miles downriver.

Laclède returned to St. Louis in April 1764 with a design for the town, where Chouteau was overseeing clearing of the land. He was followed soon after by his common-law wife Marie Thérèse Bourgeois Chouteau (Madame Chouteau).

Laclède had four children with Madame Chouteau: Jean-Pierre (1758), Marie Pelagie (1760), Marie Louise (1762), and Victoire (1764) Chouteau. Because divorce was forbidden by the law of both the Roman Catholic Church and France, these children were baptised as the children of Madame Chouteau's legal husband, René Auguste Chouteau (père). René Chouteau was in fact in France, having battered then abandoned Madame Chouteau.

Laclède, unfortunately, was not a good businessman. He died en route returning from New Orleans, where he had gone to try to straighten out his financial situation.

The St. Louis downtown riverfront area is named Laclede's Landing in his honor. He is also the namesake of Laclede County, Missouri and he has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.