The distinctive Four Courts building was St. Louis’s early center of civic justice. It appears in the Compton and Dry Pictorial map from 1875. The map also displays what looks like a circus tent across the street. Camile Dry drew in many quirky but accurate observations. Knowing this, I set out to discover what was in town there. That brought me into the world of P. T. Barnum and his great traveling Hippodrome.
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1899: Petty Crime With Petty Change
Simple requests sometimes lead to weird tales from the past in the Lafayette Square neighborhood. Here is a recent case in point.
While trying to research both 1300 and 1302 South 18th Street, I found an 1899 newspaper article about the homeowner at 1300.
Continue reading “1899: Petty Crime With Petty Change”1897: No Picnic On Either Side Of The Law
I. Murder On The Riverfront
Noble Shepard was a 28 year old glassblower from Illinois. He left his wife and migrated to the riverside near downtown St Louis, where he holed up in a tent. 100 yards away, Tom and Lizzie Morton lived on a flatboat tied to shore. Tom was a good looking man of “slight frame,” who wanted to roam. He joined a small circus and met Lizzie Leahy in Alton, Illinois. Abandoning the circus, the two went off on a flatboat and tied up at the foot of Potomac Street. Tom found work as a machinist with Barr Department Store. Lizzie made her living doing needlework. Two months into their stay, they met Noble Shepard.
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