Male

September 25, 1792

September 27, 1817

Pittsburgh, PA

St. Louis, MO

Charles Lucas was the son of John B.C. Lucas and Anne (Sebin) Lucas. He was born in Pittsburgh, PA but his father soon relocated the family to St. Louis, MO. In 1806, Charles was sent east to Jefferson College in Philadelphia. After he completed his education, he returned to St. Louis in 1811.

Lucas joined a territorial militia unit sent to patrol along the Illinois River in 1811. He subsequently transferred to a St. Louis volunteer artillery company led by his brother Robert. When Robert resigned his command in 1813, the St. Louis volunteers elected Charles to replace him. He was given the rank of Captain and for the duration of the War of 1812, the artillery company he commanded periodically reported for duty at the nearby military installation at Portage des Sioux.

In ...1814, Lucas was admitted to the territorial bar and that same year he won a seat in the territorial assembly as a representative from St. Louis County. He also worked with Rufus Easton as a partner. Three years later President James Madison appointed him U.S. Attorney for the Missouri Territory. Lucas dabbled in land speculation and in 1816 he and Asa Morgan purchased a tract of land in present day Cooper County that they had chosen for a new town. They drew up plans and laid out a plat for Boonville, Missouri which they filed in 1817.

The popular and well liked young Lucas soon found himself at odds with Thomas Hart Benton, another rising member of the St. Louis bar. Benton had allied himself with a political faction highly critical of Lucas' father who had become a staunch foe of the territory's Spanish land claimants. Charles Lucas and Benton first clashed publicly while representing opposing parties in a case argued in the St. Louis Circuit Court in October 1816. They exchanged insults in their closing statements and after losing the case Benton alleged that Lucas had defamed him. He demanded satisfaction in a duel but Lucas declined the challenge.

Their paths crossed again on election day in August 1817 when Lucas questioned Benton's eligibility to vote on grounds that he had failed to pay his taxes. Benton's derisive dismissal of his detractor as a "puppy" provoked Lucas to respond by demanding to settle the affront with a duel. Benton accepted, and they faced off on Bloody Island near St. Louis on August 12 using smoothbore pistols at a distance of thirty feet. Benton escaped from the encounter with a bruised knee but Lucas sustained more serious injuries from a bullet that cut an artery in his neck.

Initially both men pronounced themselves satisfied. Benton subsequently reconsidered and demanded a second meeting after declaring that Lucas' friends had questioned his conduct in the affair. Their second meeting took place on September 27, 1817, and in that encounter Lucas died after a bullet hit near his heart.
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Jefferson College

Lawyer

1814 admitted to the Missouri Territory Bar

Read law with Rufus Easton

U.S. Attorney (Missouri Territory) 1817

It was once believed that he attended the Litchfield Law School but he did not.

Christensen, William O. ed. Dictionary of Missouri Biography. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1999.

John Baptiste Charles Lucas Family Papers (1754-1943) Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis. ALS Lucas, William to Lucas, John Baptiste Charles, box 9 March 6, 1818 and March 15, 1818