James Clemens Jr. Family:Information about John Mullanphy
John Mullanphy (b. 1761, d. August 29, 1833)
Notes for John Mullanphy:
John Mullanphy was from near Enniskillen in northern Ireland. He migrated to the United States in 1793, and settled in Baltimore. Later he assisted Andrew Jackson, whose parents were from County Antrim, to defend the city against the British during the War of 1812. Mullanphy 'The first millionaire of the American west', sent his son Bryan to France and England to be educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire. In 1825 16 year old Bryan Mullanphy brought 15 Native American artworks to the school, where they remained until 1977 when they were lent to the British Museum. Bryan Mullanphy served as Mayor of St. Louis in 1847-8, and, as a successful entrepreneur, was an important philanthropist, endowing a hospital and other charities. (online article dated 6/2005)
1896 S. Florissant Rd., Florissant, MO 63033The house is located on the campus of McCluer High School in North St. Louis County.
HISTORY: Hyacinthe Dehatre, a Spaniard who was an early Florissant settler, received the land where Taille de Noyer and McCluer High School now stand in a grant from the Spanish government in 1790. He built a log cabin there the same year. Dehatre later sold the property to another family, and in 1808 John Mullanphy, a philanthropist reputed to St. Louis’ first millionaire, acquired the land and the house and used it as a hunting lodge.
Mullanphy’s daughter Jane married Charles Chambers in 1819, and for a while they lived in New York. But Mullanphy encouraged them to return to St. Louis, offering them the home if they did. They accepted and when they returned to St. Louis, they moved into Taille de Noyer. The Chambers added framing around the doors and windows to make the home less primitive.
A summer kitchen was built in the rear of the house. The couple ultimately had 17 children, and as the Chambers family grew, they added to the house. The birth of the children and the construction of new rooms were chronicled by Chambers in his letters to his father.
The couple’s descendants lived in the house until the 1961. The family later donated the land and the house to the Ferguson-Florissant School District at a time when the city’s population had increased 920 per cent. When the school district announced it wanted to tear down the house to make way for a new gymnasium, the Florissant Valley Historical Society went to work to save the home. The Society had the house moved 200 yards to allow for construction of the parking lot. They then restored the home and opened it for tours.The home is decorated throughout with Victorian furnishings, some of which belonged to the Mullanphy family.Among the furnishings in the parlor are a rosewood étagère from France and a Dutch bowl that belonged the John Mullanphy.
In the meantime, in l827, Rosati had encouraged Mother Duchesne to open a convent and school in St. Louis as she had originally planned in l8l8. John Mullanphy leased property to the Sisters for 999 years with the provision that they would care for 20 orphans each year–for the stipend of five dollars each per year. The soon-to-be-famous "City House" opened and Mother Duchesne continued her frontier work in education. At the age of 72, she finally achieved her life-long wish to work with native Americans when she went with Father De Smet to live and work with the Potawatomis. They revered her and dubbed her "the lady who prays always."
In l828, Rosati asked the Sisters of Charity to come to St. Louis to open a hospital. Again, John Mullanphy provided property plus $350 to purchase furnishings and $l50 traveling money. Four Sisters arrived by stagecoach in November and opened the St. Louis Mullanphy Hospital–the first hospital west of the Mississippi. They gave free services to many poor people and heroically cared for the victims of the great cholera epidemic of l832. They also opened the first Catholic orphanage for boys in the West.
John Mullanphy, a veteran of the French Brigade in the United States, corners the cotton market in the Mississippi Valley and becomes a very wealthy man (1815)
In 1827, John Mullanphy granted to Philippine Duchesne a 999 year lease for property on Broadway and Convent Streets. One of the stipulations of the lease was that 20 orphan girls or girls from indigent families should be cared for. Thus began the Mullanphy Orphanage. These girls entered the Orphanage and thereby the academy directed by the Religious of the Sacred Heart upon recommendation by Mullanphy’s daughters, and later his descendants. This stipulation has been carried out to the present day with the exception that now, in lieu of institutional care, financial need scholarships are awarded to students attending Villa Duchesne who require assistance. Inquiries concerning girls who were cared for are accepted, but in most cases there is little or no information. Inquiries should be sent to: Society of the Sacred Heart, National Archives U.S.A., 801 South Spoede Roads, St. Louis MO 63131.
Beer pilgrims who come to The Saint Louis Brewery can witness the revival of a tradition that was dormant for 170 years in St. Louis, a brewery with Jewish leadership. In 1815 John Philipson, St. Louis’s first Jewish businessman, opened the St. Louis Brewery.Because of a shortage of malt and hops, this particular venture of Philipson’s didn’t do too well; and he sold the brewery to John Mullanphy in 1821.
The original Will is located in the files of the Mullanphy/Clemens collection housed at the Pius Library, St. Louis University.
Mullanphy purchased the Guy Seely log-cabin home on Old jamestown Road in St. Louis County, before 1833 (original survey of this property is US Survey #934).It lies diriectly across the Missouri River from Little's Island in St. Charlels County - the Seely Tract on the high ground of St. Louis County.The road was just an Indian Trail at the time (1789 original) and the Sioux Indians portraged across the Missouri River and followed the trail which connected with what was known as "The Great Trail of the Sioux".(Bellfontaine Road) which ended at St. Louis.
The original log cabin which Seely built was the most remote outpost of civilization on the frontier and one of sites of many conferences with the natives.
Mullanphy, purchased the property in later years, and deeded it to his youngest daughter, Eliza, who married James Clemens on January 10, 1833.Clemens covered the original Seely log-cabin with clap-boards and enlarged the house so that it could accomodate his growing family.James and Eliza became the parents of 13 children.The property was subdivided into smaller parcels and sold after Eliza Clemens' death on August 20, 1853.
The current address is 17200 Old Jamestown Road.
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Taille de Noyer
1896 S. New Florissant Rd.
Florissant, MO 63031
(314) 839-3626
The original log cabin, purchased in 1805 by John Mullanphy, an early merchant and trader and St. Louis' first millionaire, grew through the years during which it served as the home of five generations of the Mullanphy family.
Born in Ireland about 1758, Mullanphy and his wife, Elizabeth, came to America in 1792, and lived in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Frankfort, Kentucky, before arriving in St. Louis. Here he opened a store on Second Street, and began acquiring real estate...the two room trading post constructed of rough hewn logs being one of his first acquisitions. He used it as his hunting lodge.
Mullanphy loved the wilderness and Florissant, which he hoped would be chosen as the seat of Missouri's government. He offered to build a courthouse for the state offices and legislature. While this offer was rejected, Mullanphy did much for St. Louis, and built the first hospital west of the Mississippi River.
Taille de Noyer is a last reminder of the country life of the early nineteenth century. The original cabin was given by Mullanphy to his daughter, Jane, and her husband, Charles Chambers, in 1817, to lure them back from New York after thier marriage. They bagan expanding the house in 1819 and took up residence in 1820. Thier house, a bit more pretentious than the original cabin, was furnished almost completely with family heirlooms.
The Chambers had 17 children, and Taille de Noyer grew with the family until it became a stately mansion of 22 rooms, each with beautiful fireplaces of brick probably made at the site. Another major addition was a summer kitchen near the main house, a favorite gathering place for the Chambers' sons.
One hundred and forty years of continuous occupancy by heirs of John Mullanphy ended late in 1960 when the property was acquired by the Ferguson-Florissant School District for expansion of McCluer High School. While the summer kitchen and terrace of hand-made brick were sacrificed, the Florissant Historical Society arranged for preservation of the historic home and raised funds to move the structure 200 yards to a new location.
Members of the Historical Society, enraptured by the beauty and rich lore about the house, began restoration with limited funds and donations of time and materials from labor groups, civic organizations, local business interests as well as school children.
Two bedrooms upstairs and two rooms in the newer wing downstairs were opened to the public in December, 1965. A year later two additional bedrooms and a nursery were restored and furnished. Restoring an historic building is a continuous and never ending project. Even after all the rooms are open to the public, the process of refurnishing and acquiring will continue for generations to come. A museum and country store were established in the basement where rough-hewn original logs are visible to visitors.
There had even been a small group of prefamine Irish Catholic immigrants who achieved wealth and some status. John Mullanphy arrived in St. Louis in 1804 and "virtually cornered the cotton market following the War of 1812"; he soon became St. Louis's first millionaire.
My father informed me that a countryman of his, and his brother Catholic, a man who proved himself possessed of superior sagacity and business talents John Mullanphy Esqr. since a Millionaire in St. Louis, came to Lexington in 1793 or 1795 with his first adventure a moderate sized trunk or box of Books, remained here but a little while, and went to Bardstown but afterwards to St. Louis; his first speculation
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[Mullanphy, John]: [LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT]. [St. Louis: 1837?]. 15pp, stitched, uncut. Untitled. Clean and Near Fine.
The rare will of this American Catholic philanthropist, an immigrant from Ireland who made a fortune buying and then selling cotton during and after the War of 1812. Mullanphy settled in St. Louis, where he endowed many Catholic charities; and established a trust for poor emigrants passing through St. Louis to settle in the West. Among many provisions, he provides for "a mulatto child called Fanny," age about four years and living with him, freeing her at age 18. He solemnly swears that she is not his daughter. Mullanphy served as Mayor of St. Louis in 1847; he also found time to sire fifteen children. OCLC records only the copy at Duke; although Mullanphy died in 1833, OCLC suggests an 1837 publication date.
OCLC 31624596 [1]. Not in Missouri Imprints Inventory, Sabin, American Imprints.$375
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Burial Record of John Mullamphy, from The Old Cathedral, Church of St. Louis of France, Second and Wallnut Streets, St. Louis, Missouri.See scan
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Merchant, philanthropist, b. near Enniskillen, Co. Fremanagh, Ireland, 1758; d. at St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., 29 August, 1833. At twenty he went to France where he served in the Irish Brigade until the Revolution drove him back to Ireland. In 1792 with his wife and child he emigrated to Philadelphia, thence going to Baltimore where he remained until 1799. He next went to Kentucky where he opened a store in Frankfort, but left there in 1804, and settled finally in St. Louis, then a French settlement. His enterprise in business brought him large returns which he invested in real estate. He was in Baltimore during the War of 1812 with England, and took part in its defence, and later was with Jackson in 1815 at the battle of New Orleans. His business instinct prompted him to then buy a large quantity of cotton at low rates, which the ending of the war enabled him to sell at an immense profit. He had fifteen children, and spent his last years in dispensing much of his great fortune in charity. In 1827 he established the St. Louis Convent of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, the second in the United States. The following year he gave a hospital to the Sisters of Charity. A church, the Jesuit novitiate, and a convent for the Sisters of Loretto at Florissant, were also his gifts, and when he died 25,000 dollars was left in his will for education and charity. His children continued his benefactions. His only son, Bryan, who died in 1851, a bachelor, lived an eccentric life. He was mayor of St. Louis in 1847, and for four years judge of the County Court. His will left one-third of his estate (about 200,000 dollars) as a trust fund "to furnish relief to all poor emigrants passing through St. Louis to settle in the West." Changed conditions have frustrated that intention, and it is now devoted to charity. John Mullanphy's name is perpetuated in St. Louis by the hospital and orphan asylum so designated, and the name of his daughter, Mrs. Ann Biddle, is preserved in the Biddle Home and St. Ann's Foundling Asylum which she founded.
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newspaper clippings give September 28th as day of death.
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U.K. and U.S. Directories, 1680-1830
about John Mullanphy
Name: John Mullanphy
Dates: 1801-1825
Location:
Town: Baltimore
American County:Maryland baltimore
Gender: Male
Address:
Address: North Charles, near Saratoga street
Town: Baltimore
American County: Maryland
Source Date: 1814
Source Info:
Listed in, [Baltimore, 1814-15] Baltimore Directory and Register, for 1814-15: containing The Names, Residence and Occupation of the Citizens; the Constitution and Government of the United States; the Government of the State of Maryland, and of the City and County of Baltimore, &c. &c. To which is prefixed, A List of the Streets, Lanes and Alleys of the City and Precincts. [a few entries difficult to read on pages between pp.156-193], 1814, LAKIN, James, Baltimore. Printed by J. C. O?Reilly
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U.K. and U.S. Directories, 1680-1830
about John N. Mullanphy
Name: John N. Mullanphy
Dates: 1801-1825
Location:
Town: Baltimore
American County:Maryland baltimore
Gender: Male
Address:
Address: Charles, near Saratoga street
Town: Baltimore
American County: Maryland
Source Date: 1816
Source Info:
Listed in, [Baltimore, 1816] The Baltimore Directory and Register, for the year 1816: containing The Names, Residence and Occupations of the Citizens: A Correct List of the Streets, Lanes and Alleys; Heads of Department, and Members of Congress; Navy and Army Register; General Post-Office and Baltimore Mail Establishments; Bank Discount Days: Abstract of the Principal Duties; Calendar for 1816, &c. &c. &c. Also A correct list of the Courts held in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia., 1816, MATCHETT, Edward, Baltimore. Printed & sold at the Wanderer Office, N. E. Corner of Gay and Water streets
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Irish name:O'Maolanpann'; Melanphy - des of Maolanpano.Means Chief of the Storm
More About John Mullanphy:
Burial: August 29, 1833, St. Louis King Fr. (moved to Calvary Cem), St. Louis, St. Louis Co., MO.
Emigration: 1792, Ireland to Philadelphia with wife/child.
Immigration: 1804, Baltimore to Saint Louis, MO.
Military service: 1778, entered Irish Brigade.
Probate: 1833, Probate filed.
More About John Mullanphy and Elizabeth Browne:
Marriage: Bet. 1770 - 1792, Ireland.
Marriage Notes for John Mullanphy and Elizabeth Browne:
Mullanphy and wife came to Pennsylvania in 1792; to Maryland in 1799; to Missouri in 1804
Children of John Mullanphy and Elizabeth Browne are:
- Ellen Mullanphy, b. 1795, Ireland, d. March 1825, Paris, France.
- +Catherine Cecelia Mullanphy, b. November 1796, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Co., Pennsylvania, d. December 06, 1875, St. Louis, St. Louis Co., MO.
- +Julia Jane Mullanphy, b. January 23, 1799, Baltimore, Maryland, d. February 24, 1891, St. Louis, St. Louis Co., MO.
- Anne Mullanphy, b. 1803, Frankfort, Kentucky, d. January 01, 1846, St. Louis, St. Louis Co., MO.
- male child Mullanphy, b. September 1803, St. Louis, St. Louis Co., MO, d. March 08, 1805, St. Louis, St. Louis Co., MO.
- +Mary Mullanphy, b. January 24, 1826, d. August 29, 1861, Paris, France.
- +Octavia Mullanphy, b. January 15, 1808, d. November 12, 1876, Paris, France.
- Judge Bryan, Mullanphy, b. September 16, 1809, Baltimore, MD, d. June 14, 1851, St. Louis, St. Louis Co., MO.
- +Elizabeth Frances Browne Mullanphy, b. March 15, 1812, Baltimore, Baltimore Co., MD, d. August 20, 1853, St. Louis, St. Louis Co., MO, 12:37midnight.