[I-1] Belle Fontaine or Bellefontaine is the name of the large cemetery in the environs of St. Louis, where William Clark lies buried; and probably few persons now living know its proper geographical connotation. The cemetery is four miles from the Court House, and ten miles further is the place whose name was given to the burying-ground on the road thither, after its original designation as the Rural Cemetery. Belle Fontaine was a place on the south bank of the river, 14 m. north of St. Louis, in what is now St. Ferdinand township of St. Louis Co. (Sect. 10, T. 47 N., R. 7 E. of this county). Before there was any such "place," or locality, Belle Fontaine was the French name of the creek which falls in there, which had been called Ferdinand by the Spanish, and which became known to the English as Cold Water creek, there being a fine large spring under the bluffs, close to the Missouri. This, however, was washed away by the encroachment of the river. We find the latter name in Lewis and Clark, who made the first camp of their expedition on Green isl., opposite the mouth of the creek, May 14th, 1804. There was nothing then at the place that was soon to become forever notable as the spot where was built the first military post ever established in the newly acquired territory of Louisiana. Much early history attaches to the locality, some of which may be here epitomized, mainly on the basis of Billon's Annals. In 1768, when St. Louis was but begun, Captain Rios arrived with 25 soldiers under orders from Count Ulloa to establish Spanish authority in the region where things were at a standstill, if not in distraction. Rios was persona non grata in the infant St. Louis; he withdrew, and selected Belle Fontaine as a suitable location for a post. Late in 1768 he there built a fort which he called Fort Prince Charles in honor of the son of his king and heir apparent to the Spanish throne. In 1769 Rios left with his men; in 1770 Piernas came. The Spanish presidio was soon turned into a commercial factory or trading-post. On Sept. 10th, 1797, Governor Zenon Trudeau granted to Hezekiah Lord a concession of 1,000 arpents of land on Belle Fontaine or Cold Water cr.; and on the site of the former Spanish fort Lord built a house and mill. He died in 1799; his estate was sold in partition in 1803, when 600 arpents were bought by William Massey. In 1805, General James Wilkinson selected the place for a military establishment, and United States troops were first cantoned in temporary quarters during the winter of 1805-6. This was the original Cantonment Belle Fontaine. On April 20th, 1806, General Wilkinson purchased from Massey, on behalf of the United States, five acres of ground with the improvements, called Belle Fontaine, with the use for five years of the ground on which had been located the cantonment, and upon these five acres established a permanent post. In July, 1806, he purchased the rest of the tract of 500 arpents, which was conveyed to