Bringing music to the fort

The first piano on the Missouri frontier was brought up the river to Fort Osage by Mary Easton Sibley. It was a great curiosity to the Osage Indians, who simply adored her beautiful music, which seemed to be from heaven. As a teacher, Mary did her best to educate the settlers and Indian children alike around the Six Mile district of Fort Osage.

Mary was born into a well-to-do New England family back in 1800, the oldest child of Rufus and Abigail Easton. Her father, Rufus, was educated in the finest law school of his day and yearned for a government appointment. Almost immediately following the Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson named him attorney general of the newest and largest territory in North America, and a delegate to the United States Congress. The Easton family was among the first American’s to arrive in the bustling French town of St. Louis in 1804 and they soon became part of the high society of the Missouri frontier.

Easton also opened a law practice and dabbled in banking, land speculation, and was the first postmaster of St. Louis. Next to Benjamin Franklin, he was one of the most colorful in postal history. Rufus was in a position as postmaster to name many of the streets of St. Louis.

Young Mary was only 4 years old when they arrived in St. Louis and grew up in a melting pot of neighborhood kids. There were French and German children, little Indians and children of free blacks and Negro slaves, and other than the language barrier, she saw absolutely no difference between them.

Educational opportunities for girls in the new territory were almost non-existent in those early years, so Mary’s mother took it upon herself to educate her own children. Mary became a musical young lady of grace and knowledge as she grew to womanhood.

Due to her father’s position they personally knew many Indian chiefs, all of the Chouteaus (the founding family of St. Louis), Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Zebulon Pike, and George Sibley, just to name a few.

It was George who caught Mary’s eye, and he was immediately smitten with her remarkable qualities, not to mention her charm and beauty. George was 33 and Mary was only 15 when they married.

George Sibley was the factor of the government storehouse at Fort Osage in present day Jackson County, an agent of the United States Government. Sibley was at the fort when it opened in 1808, however during the War of 1812 the fort was abandoned and Sibley was removed to the St. Louis area, which is when he met and married Mary Easton. Upon his return to Fort Osage following the end of the war, he brought his lovely new bride and her piano back up the river.

Sibley built a fine log home for Mary at the fort, which was noted for its hospitality, and all prominent travelers on the Missouri River were duly entertained by the newlyweds.

When Fort Osage was officially closed down, George and Mary returned to St. Charles where they founded a boarding school, which became the first college west of the Mississippi – Lindenwood College for Young Ladies. Awakened by a religious conversion in 1832, Mary went on to do remarkable things throughout her life. She sought to impart knowledge, morality, and Protestant Christianity to the young people of Missouri. She taught English to the German immigrants and established an African American school to educate black children. She was an early advocate for women’s suffrage and was personally acquainted with Susan B. Anthony.

Reference: The Indomitable Mary Easton Sibley, by Kristie C. Wolferman.

The “Indomitable Mary Easton Sibley” and other books in the Missouri Heritage Readers Series by the University of Missouri Press are available at the Blue & Grey Book Shoppe in the Old Blake Museum, 106 E. Walnut St., 2 blocks south of the Independence Square.