I moved to Charleston in September 2020…on my 80^th birthday. It is now 2023…time to stop procrastinating on finding the something to research and write about in Charleston that was mine to tell. (As arrogant as that sounds…)I fancy myself a writer of local histories…all small letters. I had moved to Charleston FROM St. “Charles”, Missouri, where I worked for the local historical society archives for ten years. I had moved to St. Charles from elsewhere and was totally new to the history there, also. I had to quickly learn to function in one of my roles as a research assistant to people coming in to trace their families in St. Charles. (I also had to quickly learn THE family names…every town has them.)

I threw myself into it and found as a bonus that I had unfettered access to old court records and documents and file cabinets full of previous research and the very oldest photos. I began to write articles for the St. Charles County Historical Society’s “Heritage Quarterly Journal.” With all that material, how could I not. I also wrote, had articles included in and/or helped produce four local history books, all but one published by the Historical Society.

I only tell you this to say that I am not a novice at local history research and to justify my drive to find something to write about Charleston. But I quicky realized that I couldn’t possible have anything to say about Charleston that hasn’t been said and said better or at least with more authority and better last names.  And ALL the history here is intimidating…and some, I knew beforehand, I didn’t really want to get into. And I was retired now….

This little research and writing project will not always be in depth…get three confirmations on anything fact…as it is in genealogical research…I know how to research that way…but since I don’t have old family here and am more or less doing this for the fun of it…though it won’t all be fun and games and sometimes one will need to get serious…mostly it is an example for those who don’t know the history of the area to get a taste of what isn’t always found in the history books…and a little off the beaten path…

With that declaration, I began to research because that is what I do…but now being in that mysterious phase of curious but with no target…reading the usual history of Charleston books. What we at the St. Charles County Archives called “low hanging fruit.”