Steven Zahm@ Mike
The first thing you should try is to configure the search so it can give you results more to you liking. This can be done on the Connections : Settings admin page under the Search tab. The first thing you should try is disabling the Keyword search option and use only the FULLTEXT searching. If your setup supports this, it can give far better results. If your database does not support FULLTEXT, you’ll get no results when performing a search and unfortunately, you’ll have to use the keyword search feature, sort of. Most of the time, you can make changes to the database to enable FULLTEXT. Maybe your host can make the change for you, if not, here’s a link to a Google search that should get you on your way:
https://www.google.com/#q=phpmyadmin+fulltext
As for searching just St, that is a database issue, one I can do nothing about. Most databases are configured to require 3–4 characters for a search.
I hope that helps!