Frederick A. Hodes

Frederick A. Hodes, Ph.D., has been a resident of the City of St. Louis since the age of two. Hodes began researching his multi-volume saga of the Mound City after receiving his doctorate in history from Saint Louis University in 1973. He is retired from the Defense Mapping Agency (now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)), where he worked as a cartographer for thirty-three years. He is married, the father of two, and grandfather of seven.

Hodes is a former Republican committeeman in the City of St. Louis and served on the Stakeholder Assembly for the city's Home Rule efforts in the early 2000's. In 2010, Hodes received the St. Louis County Historical Society's William Barnaby Faherty Award for his contributions to local history.

His multi-volume history of the City of St. Louis includes:

"Beyond the Frontier: A History of St. Louis to 1821" - A definitive chronicle of the city's earliest years that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described as "worthy of attention by anybody who wants to better understand how St. Louis became St. Louis."

"Rising on the River: St. Louis 1822 to 1850, Explosive Growth from Town to City" - The second part of this multi-volume history tells the story of the boomtown that rose to become the commercial hub and cultural capital of the American frontier.

"The Divided City: A History of St. Louis, 1851 to 1876" - The latest work advances the story of St. Louis through the Civil War period to the Great Divorce (St. Louis City's secession from St. Louis County). Divided loyalties led to civic bloodshed, martial law, and military occupation.

These books are the result of more than 30 years of scholarship and provide the definitive and compelling history that has shaped modern St. Louis.