Fire, Pestilence and Death: St.Louis 1849

November 23, 2018 Posted by: Tom Dewey, Librarian

Fire, Pestilence and Death: St.Louis 1849, by Christopher Alan Gordon. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Press, 2018.

In 1849, the city of St. Louis was little more than a frontier town. The city was undergoing rapid growth and creaking under the strain of poor infrastructure. The cholera epidemic and the great Fire of 1849 were two events that had immediate and long-lasting effects on the rapidly growing city.

Christopher Alan Gordon’s book, Fire, Pestilence and Death: St. Louis 1849, draws on the archives of the Missouri Historical Society for much of its material. But other sources, including newspaper accounts, diaries, letters, city and county records and contemporary publications, also help reveal the story of 1849 St. Louis as it was experienced by people who lived through that incredibly difficult year.

The author provides many viewpoints and descriptions of the Great Fire. Here he describes the immediate aftermath: “The Old Cathedral and South Market building, including the town hall, had been saved, but the remaining blocks of the riverfront north from Locust Street to Spruce and west from Front Street to Third were almost entirely unrecognizable. In all, 430 buildings were lost to the fire. The St. Louis Daily Union reported that the narrow streets of the city were literally choked up with walls of fallen houses and destroyed property of various kinds.”

Gordon weaves the stories from this turbulent time into a legacy of the city’s courage and triumph. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history and strengths of the city of St. Louis.