Crestwood Sunset Hills Directory 2021

18 2021 | Crestwood - Sunset Hills Community Directory History of Sunset Hills The following are excerpts from the Sunset Hills Online History Booklet, which was originally created as part of a 3rd-grade project in 1971, was expanded by an Eagle Scout, further researched and published in 1976 by the Sunset Hills Bicentennial Commission and updated in 1982. The oldest settlement along the Meramec River was in the area around Fenton and Sunset Hills. Spanish grants of land were given to John Hildebrand in 1777, Gabriel Cerre in 1779, and Jacques Clamorgan in 1791. Hildebrand owned land in present-day Valley Park and Fenton. He sold his land to Thomas Tyler who sold it to Clamorgan, who ran the mineral spring on the West Side of the river in Fenton. Cerre owned the sulphur spring in Sunset Hills but had someone else run it for him. (Cerre’s father-in-law is Auguste Chouteau, founder of St. Louis.) The other original land grant holders were all French-Canadians but dates are obscure. REVOLUTIONARY WAR HEROES The Revolutionary War involved those living in Illinois and Missouri to such an extent that George Rodgers Clark came into the area to prevent the British and their Native American allies from taking over the upper Mississippi Valley. Clark interviewed Gabriel Cerre in Kaskaskia, Illinois and declared him loyal to the American cause. Cerre was to be a help to Clark in enlisting the aid of Native American tribes and settlers. Although there is no record of Cerre living on the land he owned in Sunset Hills, we do know that he ran the big spring at Weber Hill Road and Watson Road from 1781. At this date, we have no other records of anyone else who owned property at that time serving in the war. You will find three Revolutionary War heroes buried in Sappington Cemetery on the Historic Route 66 Byway: John Sappington, John Long, and Joseph Wells. None of these men lived here at their time of service. THE SAPPINGTONS The Spaniards had invited Daniel Boone into Missouri. They promised him huge grants of land if he would come and be a syndic, or judge, to the Native Americans of the area. He settled north of the Missouri River. In his travels back to Kentucky he would tell the settlers of the great land available in Missouri. John and Jemima Sappington listened with interest to his stories and in 1804 sent sons Thomas and Zephaniah and son-in-law Jonah Parke to explore St. Louis County and buy land. They bought 1,920 acres of land from Peter Didier in 1804 (Crestwood and Sappington area). In 1805, the Sappingtons came with their 17 children and friends to settle along Gravois Road and environs. This road was on a map of 1804 as the road leading to Clamorgan’s Spring. The Sappington family was a very rare one in that all but one of their children grew to maturity, married, and populated the area that came to be known as Sappington. Their homes were scattered over a broad area of Crestwood, Sunset Hills, and Concord. Zephaniah Sappington’s home seems to be the oldest. This is the John Dressel property on Gravois. Begun in 1805, chimney built in 1811, the house was finished in 1815. Resin Sappington ran a grist mill from that house and his brother Jack had a tannery of 45 vats on the same property. There was a spring house, smoke house, slave cabin and a big barn. When the Southwoods Apartments were built, the barn was torn down. The old mill stone used in the grist mill was moved into Mr. Dressel’s beautiful garden and can still be seen there today. The Sappington House, maintained by the city of Crestwood, was the home of Thomas Sappington, built by enslaved people and completed in 1808. Thomas Sappington and Mary Ann Kincaid obtained the first marriage license issued in the region, also in 1808. The Joseph Sappington Home off Baptist Church Road, owned by the Lubbock family, might have been built as early as 1805. Mark Sappington’s home, called the Arban House, at 8687 Pardee Lane, was built in 1845.