People
Name: Chatillon, Henri
Category: St. Louis and the West
Description: Henri Chatillon was one of the great Oregon Trail guides whose home in St. Louis remains a landmark to this day. A descendant of Auguste Chouteau, he married his first cousin, Odile Delor, and the two began the construction of a two-story brick farmhouse with the wide double verandah characteristic of traditional Creole houses. In 1846, he served as a guide to Francis Parkman and Quincy Shaw, Harvard-educated tenderfoots who later described his heroics in their publication of their adventures in the oft-reprinted Oregon Trail. Mr. Chatillon thus became an icon of the western adventurer. In 1861, he and his wife sold their house to Nicolas N. DeMenil and his wife Emilie Sophie Chouteau. They transformed the Creole farmhouse into a mansion with a portico in the Greek-Revival style. This landmark is now known as the Chatillon-DeMenil House.
Structures & Places
Chatillon-DeMenil House
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