300 Years of the French in Old Mines - by Mark G Boyer

Book Synopsis

The village of Old Mines is the oldest settlement in the state of Missouri. Lead miners were in Old Mines as early as 1719. The founding of Old Mines in 1723 coincides with the land grant awarded to Philippe Francois Renault by French authorities on June 26, 1723, to mine lead. Thus, the oldest village in Missouri began as a mining town. In 2023, the village marks three hundred years of the French in Old Mines. This book narrates the history of people in remote Louisiana and how they have kept alive a French heritage of culture and customs. The history of Old Mines is tightly bound to the Catholic faith the French settlers brought with them, the parish they founded, and the church, schools, rectories, and convents they built. The decade of the 2020s is filled with over twenty anniversaries to be marked and celebrated in the oldest mining town in Missouri, itself marking its Bicentennial in 2021. This is not a scholarly writing of history; it is a thirty-chapter narrative, grounded in research, of the continual presence of the French in Old Mines for three hundred years.

Review Quotes

"While this meticulous record of every aspect of the history, life, and culture of Old Mines, Missouri, may prove a daunting task to the casual reader, it will surely provide a treasure trove for residents and researchers, who will delight in the ready availability of dependable details on the life and times of this early mining town in the 'Show-Me' state."
--Pauline Nugent, Professor of Classics and Biblical Hebrew, Missouri State University

"This examination of Missouri's oldest settlement efficiently catalogs and recounts the cultural and linguistic heritage of the families in and around Old Mines. 300 Years of the French in Old Mines dutifully entwines the history of the Catholic church with the surrounding community. That this small, unincorporated French community nestled within the St. Francois Mountains has endured for three centuries is a testament to the faith of its people and their ancestry."
--Kristopher Morehead, Pipkin IB/MYP World School, Springfield, Missouri

About the Author

Mark G. Boyer, a native Old Miner, wrote his first book on the history of St. Joachim Parish in Old Mines, Missouri, fifty years ago. Since then, he has become a well-known spiritual master of books on biblical and liturgical spirituality. This is his sixty-sixth volume and his twenty-fifth Wipf and Stock title.