St. Louis originally began in 1906 as a community named Simpsonville when J. R. Simpson opened a cotton gin, a gristmill and then a general store. It is unclear when the name of the community was changed to St. Louis. A town plat was not filed until March 9, 1927, and a post office was established in 1928.
Except for a brief oil boom in the 1920s, the town's economy has been based on serving local cotton farmers.
The population peaked at 493 residents in 1930 before declining in subsequent decades. It recovered back to 206 residents in 2000 but has declined more in recent times.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
