Book review - 'Growing Up in St. Francois County'

'Growing Up in St. Francois County: Bonne Terre and the St. Joseph Lead Company' by Jim Bequette

Reviewed by Ralph Wanamaker of Cape Girardeau

Bonne Terre means good earth or good land, and the town that arose with that name has depended greatly on the earth's resources. At one time the town was known as having the largest lead mine in the world.

Jim Bequette was reared in Bonne Terre, and his short history of the town and its main employer, the St. Joseph Lead Co., recounts a simpler lifestyle and time from 1946 to 1966 when he joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

In "Growing Up in St. Francois County," Bequette describes what it was like growing up in a company town and how the company helped the town learn to eventually become independent of the company.

"Growing Up in St. Francois County" is not a dry history filled with footnotes to events and boring records. It is more of a personal and pictoral reminiscing of youth and a time of growth and change in Bonne Terre.

The book, written in somewhat of a high school yearbook-style where city pageants, homecomings and proms are prized celebrations, relates the history of the founding of Bonne Terre and the lead mining company and how the company helped in the development of the town.

Bequette had family ties to the company and had an intimate, firsthand working knowledge of the company. Bequette's grandfathers worked for the company, one as a miner and the other as a master carpenter. His father worked as an accountant for the company and his stepfather was division manager and vice president.

Many of the photos in the book are from the company's files.

Bequette recalls the sign that greeted visitors to the town that read:

Welcome to Bonne Terre

Good Earth -- Good People.

That's the premise of the book -- a look at how the good earth helped the good people of the area make a good living.

While Bequette paints an almost idyllic life in Bonne Terre, his brush makes a broader stroke of what small-town America was like during the two decades following World War II.

"Growing Up in St. Francois County" is published by Arcadia Publishers of Regional and Local Interest Books in its Voices of America series.

The book should be available at local bookstores and online bookstores. It also can be purchased through Arcadia Publishing at (888) 313-2665 or at the Arcadia Web site at Arcadiapublishing.com.