ST. JOSEPH, a city of north-western Missouri, U.S.A., on the east bank of the Missouri river, 68 m. N. of Kansas City; a port of entry and the county seat of Buchanan county. It has a municipal airport (150 ac.) and is a station on the Chicago Dallas airway; is on Federal highways 36 and 71; and is served by the Burlington Route, the Chicago Great Western, the Mis souri Pacific, the Rock Island, the Santa Fe, the Union Pacific and two terminal switching railways. Pop. (1920) 77,939 (86% na tive white), 80,935 in 1930 by the Federal census. The city covers 13.86 sq.m., on bluffs above the river (graded down considerably in the business section), at an altitude of 967 ft. The parks (823 ac.) and boulevards, representing an investment of $4,000,000, contain much natural beauty and facilities for all the usual out door sports and recreations. There are 36 public and I r parochial schools; 94 churches; hotels with 2,000 guest-rooms; and hos pitals with 600 beds. The assessed valuation of property for 1927 was $81,869,87o. Just east of the city is a State hospital for the insane (1874). St. Joseph is an important transportation, manu facturing and commercial centre. The railroads entering the city have 50,543 m. of track; paved highways run in every direction; and the headquarters and maintenance shops of the company oper ating the Chicago-Dallas airway service are located here. The wholesale business for 1926 was estimated at nearly $200,000,000; retail sales at $69,000,000; and the value of the manufactures produced within the city in 1927 was $49,610,610. The stock yards (in South St. Joseph) received 4,053,975 animals in 1926,
of which 2,879,069 were used by the local packing-plants. Re ceipts of grain amounted to 27,818,069, of which nearly half was consumed in the local mills. Among the leading manufactures, after meat and cereal products (including pancake flour), are i writing tablets, candy, ice-cream cones, structural iron, marble and machinery. Bank debits for 1926 aggregated $748,425,000.
In 1826 Joseph Robidoux, a French half-breed, established an Indian trading-post here, known as Blacksnake Hills. After the "Platte Purchase" in 1836 other settlers came in, and in Robidoux laid out a town, which he named in honour of his patron saint. It became the county seat in 1846 and in 1851 was char tered as a city. It developed early into an important trading centre, and was a busy outfitting point during the years of heavy travel by prospectors and other emigrants to the Rocky mountains and the Pacific coast. On April 3, 1860, the first rider of the "Pony Express" galloped out of St. Joseph (the eastern terminus of the service during the 17 months of its operation), and a year later Lincoln's inaugural address was carried through to Sacra mento (nearly 2,000 m.) in 7 days and 17 hours. During the Civil War St. Joseph was held continuously by the Unionists, but local sentiment was bitterly divided. After the war a period of rapid development set in, which increased the population from 8,932 in 186o to 19,565 in 1870, and so on to 77,403 in 1910.