AUSTIN STORE

After hearing about the rich lead mines of southeast Missouri Territory (at that time called Upper Louisiana) Moses Austin, a wealthy, ambitious businessman, set out from Virginia in 1796 to investigate them. In 1797 Austin stated about the mine, "Without doubt, Mine Au Breton is richer than any in the known world." Austin received a grant for 7, 153 arpents of land & transformed lead mining & smelting into Missouri's first major industry. He sank the first mine shaft in Missouri & built the first reverbatory furnace west of the Mississippi River. As a condition of Austin's grant Austin provided many improvements for this area. He & his 40 to 50 slaves & employees built bridges, roads, a store, a blacksmith shop, a flour mill, a saw mill, a shot tower, and turned out the first sheet lead & cannonballs made in Missouri. In 1798 he moved his wife & family here where they resided in beautiful Durham Hall which Austin built & named after his birthplace in Durham, Connecticut.

The Osage Indians began to harass Mine Au Breton as early as 1799 and raided the village several times. In 1802 thirty Indians attacked the village and Durham Hall with intentions of killing the Americans and plundering Austin's home and store. The French greatly resented Austin and gave no assistance to him in the battle. The attack on the mining settlement resulted in one person killed and one woman kidnaped.

When the "Trail of Tears" came through Potosi in 1838/39 Indians purchased supplies here at Austin's Store.

During the Civil War this store was also a witness to events when Sterling Price's Confederate Army invaded Potosi in September 1864 & bombarded the Courthouse.

On January 17, 1932, Mr. Frank J. Flynn, a cashier at a local bank committed suicide in one of the upstairs front rooms by shooting himself through the heart.

BELOW: Gene Carroll, Jerry Sansegraw & Tim Dougherty in costume building the oven. This picture was on the cover of "The Parkland Voice" a suplemental magazine to "The Daily Journal" newspaper.	BELOW: Four-a-pain (Clay Bread Oven) - Gene Carroll helped to build this oven behind the Austin Store in 1994 & helped with baking bread in it. Photographed: Oct. 1998


Austin's Store - Jefferson Street as it looks today. The front section of this building is believed to have been built circa 1797/98. It later became Milam's Store.	Photographed: October 1998.