Pain Court => St. Louis? (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004, Rory M Larson wrote:
> Interesting!  But I'm still confused about where Pain Court
> comes into the equation.  Was that the site's name prior to
> 1764?  Or was it a nickname applied later by voyageurs?

Prior to 1764 the site was a nameless uninhabited place on a bluff above
the Mississippi, as I understand it.  However, it was a place with history
whose potential for settlement had been noted before.  The Cahokia
archaeological site is in the general vicinity.  I don't know if Laclede
recognized its mounds for what they were, or when they were first
recognized at all.  I deduce that Paincour(t) was a named applied after
the site began to develop, by the inhabitants.  Like "the Big Apple" or
"Gotham" for New York (all three late additions, of course), or LA for
Ciudad de los Angeles y tal y cual.