| Pierre Laclède | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 November 1729 Bedous, Béarn, France |
| Died | 20 June 1778 (aged 48) Near the mouth of the Arkansas River |
Pierre Laclède or Pierre Laclède Liguest (Bedous, Béarn, France, 22 November 1729 – died near the mouth of Arkansas River, 20 June 1778) was a French fur trader who, with his young assistant and "stepson" Auguste Chouteau, founded St. Louis, Missouri, 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 prohibited by law of both the Roman Catholic Church and in France, these children were baptized as the children of Madame Chouteau's legal husband, René Auguste Chouteau (père). René Chouteau had returned to France, after having abused and abandoned Madame Chouteau. Laclede and his descendants were influential in the St. Louis and regional economy and politics for many years. Auguste and Jean-Pierre Chouteau were partners in fur trading, and had a monopoly for several years with the Osage Native Americans up the Missouri River.
Laclède was not a good businessman despite prospering for some years in the fur trade. He died while returning to St. Louis 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, Laclede, Missouri, the Pierre Laclede Honors College at the University of Missouri-St Louis, and the Pierre Laclede Elementary School in St. Louis. He was given a "star" on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.