I remained at the Planters' House until my family arrived, when we occupied a house on Chouteau Avenue, near Twelfth.
During the spring and summer of 1851, Mr.Ewing and Mr.Henry Stoddard, of Dayton, Ohio, a cousin of my father, were much in St.
Louis, on business connected with the estate of Major Amos Stoddard, who was of the old army, as early as the beginning of this century.

He was stationed at the village of St.Louis at the time of the Louisiana purchase, and when Lewis and Clarke made their famous expedition across the continent to the Columbia River.
Major Stoddard at that early day had purchased a small farm back of the village, of some Spaniard or Frenchman, but, as he was a bachelor, and was killed at Fort Meigs, Ohio, during the War of 1812, the title was for many years lost sight of, and the farm was covered over by other claims and by occupants.

As St.Louis began to grow, his brothers and sisters, and their descendants, concluded to look up the property.

After much and fruitless litigation, they at last retained Mr.Stoddard, of Dayton, who in turn employed Mr.
Ewing, and these, after many years of labor, established the title, and in the summer of 1851 they were put in possession by the United States marshal.

The ground was laid off, the city survey extended over it, and the whole was sold in partition.