Answer :
The first permanent European settlement in Missouri were by the ethnic French-Canadians who had migrated over from Illinois County. St.Louis, now a big, urban city, was founded shortly after New Orleans was founded in Louisiana by the French. They settled in what is now the suburbs of St.Louis and became prosperous farmers growing surplus wheat, corn and tobacco and still had ties to Louisiana, where they would ship some of the above down the river for trade.
