THIS WEEK IN SOUTH SIDE HISTORY: Mountain man had major influence on Hill, Dogtown area.
Sublette, born Sept. 21, 1799, was a mountain man who once owned land in the area roughly bounded by South Kingshighway Boulevard, Southwest Avenue, Tamm Avenue and Manchester Avenue.
Sublette is the namesake for Sublette Avenue, which runs south from St. Louis Community College at Forest Park to Pernod Avenue. Sublette Park, at Arsenal Street and Sublette, also is named for him, as is Sublette County, Wyo.Born in Stanford, Ky., Sublette moved to Missouri and in 1923 answered an ad asking for 100 men to go up the Missouri River to trap and collect furs. That began a long period when he lived as a mountain man and became rich.
In 1832 he was wounded in the Battle of Pierre's Hole in Idaho.
According to the book "Mountain Man" by John E. Sunder, Sublette acquired nearly 1,000 acres in the early 1830s about six miles west of St. Louis along the River des Peres. It became known as the "Sulphur Springs Tract."
Wanting to improve the trade on his farm with St. Louis, he sought to improve conditions on roads. He also developed a popular resort for St. Louis on his property that promoted the curative power of the water from the Suphur Springs.
A large stone hotel on his property was located in the same place as the current Holiday Inn at Hampton Avenue and Interstate 44.
Sublette became involved in politics and was a delegate to the 1844 Democratic convention.
Normally, Sublette's death the next year would have ended his story.
It didn't.
Sublette's wife Frances married Solomon Sublette, Bill brother. Both died in 1857.
In 1858, a utopian-communist community, the Icarians, took over the Sublette house and surrounding buildings, according to an article by Louis Schmidt on the web site of noted Dogtown historian Bob Corbett.
In 1864, the community returned the property because it couldn't make the payments and subsequently disbanded.
Eventually, the Sublette property was sold off.
The family of Frances' sister, Mary Hereford, thought they were the property heirs, since there were no Sublettes left.
But in 1895, some other relatives organized to fight the settlement of the inheritance, according to the Schmidt article. The battle went on until 1911, when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled against them.
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