Though not a trained lawyer, Louis's communication skills and understanding of Mexican government institutions in Santa Fe allowed him to be a de facto attorney, legal advocate, and judge. Generally respected in the community by native Mexicans and foreigners, his witness or production of a bond carried weight. As an example, he had dealings in Santa Fe on October 18, 1839, when he signed as a witness an affidavit given by Charles Bent regarding the settling of an account of a Mr. Morris with a St. Louis trading firm. Bent had served as an intermediary and signed the document at his fort on the upper Arkansas River on June 6, 1839.10
Louis participated in more serious legal issues, even murder cases. In August 1839, he became involved in the court case regarding the murder of a foreigner, Andres Dayle, by Salvador Barela and Diego Martin. On August 2, he wrote to the “Judge of Par del Real Idor,” identifying four witnesses in the case and asked that they be ordered to appear before the criminal court to give testimony. “The murder which was committed against the foreigner Andres Dayle is cause enough and deserving under the law to name the witnesses who in their declaration are Antonio Sanchez, Luis Lobato, Franco Martinez and Tomas de Aquino Manchego, in such virtue and in name of the supreme powers of the nation that I require. I request and ask that as soon as my letter of justice is in your hands will serve as proof and you will call the mentioned above witnesses so that they will appear in this court and to admit without excuse and with courage that this cause demands. At the same time I ask that you please return my credentials so that I too can become part of these judicial operations as I am allowed, and assist in ensuring that the laws are satisfied and justice is served.” Apparently, the last sentence indicates Louis had run into some problems regarding his role as a local magistrate. Nonetheless, the judge, Jose Francisco Ortiz, went along with Louis's suggestion and ordered the witnesses to appear.11
The position Louis held in the community gave him some advantages in business. In April 1839 he approached the ayuntamiento or town council of Santa Fe to get permission to set up a gristmill on the Santa Fe River. Granted permission he built a then state-of-the-art mill with a water turbine that provided good power and used far less water than the larger, more traditional styles of water wheel. When a year later the nearby property owner and political rival Antonio Ortiz complained about the mill's operation, the ayuntamieto found the mill to be a benefit to the community and allowed Louis to continue operation.12
In mid-September 1839, Louis Robidoux played host to the American traveler and writer Matt Field. Field describes in wonderful detail his travels across the Great Plains beginning in July 1839 and his arrival in Santa Fe. His diary entries give us a marvelous firsthand view of the city many of the Brother's Robidoux did business in and called home at one time or another. When Field arrived, Louis stood at the pinnacle of his importance in the community. “To the house of Don Louis Rubideau [sic], an American and first Alcalde of Santa Fe, we were duly escorted; and after a delicious meal of roasted sheep ribs, eggs, wheaten cakes, and coffee, we spent the evening in satisfying the enquires of the Alcalde about St. Louis and all the old friends he had left there; receiving from him in return all the information we desired about Mexican Spaniards, Mexican Indians, Santa Fe, and the surrounding neighborhoods.”13
As interesting as his exchange with the alcalde is Field's description of the world in which Louis Robidoux lived and temporarily reigned. “As we approached the city [Field came in from the north after having visited Taos] and the houses began to shape themselves more distinctly to the eye, the church in the centre, soaring above the surrounding dwellings, attracted our attention.” It was the Church of Our Lady of Light and it sat opposite the Governor's Palace on Santa Fe's main plaza. “It was built as high and quite as large as any of our ordinary sized meeting houses, and upon after examination our surprise was not a little excited to find that these mud walls could possess such strength and durability.” The rest of the city center formed around “A large square, comprising about three hundred square yards. The row of houses on one side is occupied entirely by the public offices, the custom house, and armory, and quarters for the military. The other three sides are used for shops for the sale of merchandise brought from the United States, and are kept by Americans.” Field noted that most of the dwellings in Santa Fe, also built of the sun-dried clay bricks, had but a single story. He explained, “the people prefer half a dozen rooms in a row to as many apartments piled one above another. They think it is easier to go through a door way than up a pair of stairs, which is certainly not a very unreasonable conclusion to arrive at. Besides, although timber is plenty carpenters are scarce, and a boarded floor is a luxury for which they entertain not the slightest ambition.”14
Though of no ecological consequence at the time of his visit, Field found the construction techniques used in Santa Fe amazingly energy efficient.
The apartments are of various lengths but never exceeding twenty feet in width, (the church alone is an exception,) and across the walls from side to side are stretched, sometimes good hewn timber, sometimes rude branches, according to the means of the builder. Over these is laid a thick covering of grass and straw, and upon this earth is piled from one to two feet deep, which forms the roof. A very pleasing effect is produced by the grass growing on the tops of the houses, and as all the dwellings are connected it is not uncommon to see children chasing each other the whole length of a street along the house tops. The interior of one of these mud built houses, particularly when arranged with the assistance of American taste, forms a very comfortable and by no means inelegant dwelling. In the winter it is warm, in summer cool; and in these respects indeed a Santa Fe dwelling is even preferable to an American brick or frame residence.15
As alcalde, Louis Robidoux moved in the highest social circles of Santa Fe. He introduced Matt Field and his traveling companions to the governor, Manuel Armijo, and other notables of the city, serving as translator for the American visitors.
Alcalde Rubideau had told us that not a solitary word of English would be understood by our Spanish friends, so that we could make what remarks we pleased in our own language; and being a set of very willful youths, we exercised this license to its fullest extent, with little regard to the rules of American or Spanish good breeding. Thus we kept our interpreter, the polite Alcalde, in an absolute torture of laughter by requesting him to put to the governor and ladies whimsical questions which he could well understand but which sadly puzzled him to express in the Castilian, and when successful in an attempt to interpret our odd conceits, the side splitting merriment of the good natured governor and the dark eyed ladies bounded back to us again, causing the tears to start from our eyes with a novel and singular delight.16
According to Field, the social life of Louis Robidoux's Santa Fe revolved around two things. “Monte (a kind of game differing slightly from faro played in the States) and the fandango are the only amusements of the place, and the people spend the evening in strolling from one to the other.” Field noted that Louis loved the card game, a common characteristic of all the Brothers Robidoux, who enjoyed gambling. “We found the Alcalde on several occasions acting the part of dealer, his passion for the game leading him still to finger the cards although he had been three times stripped of accumulated property by unfortunate luck.” If the alcalde lost, so did many others. “Traders often lose the profits of a whole season in an hour's play, and when the last dollar is gone they walk off to a fandango, choose a partner and dance away care, never dreaming of cursing misfortune by suicide.”17
Apparently, a beautiful woman named Senora Toulous ran the most upscale game in Robidoux's Santa Fe. “By this business, (gambling, also called the monte bank,) has Senora Toulous amassed a fortune and made herself a person of no small distinction. She selects who she will patronize, and her presence at a fandango is sufficient to render it a fashionable affair.” And how did she do it? Field observed,
One night a crowd of men sat, betting with intense earnestness a
t a monte bank in Santa Fe. It was late, and an immense amount of silver and gold was piled upon the table. A female was dealing, (the famous Senora Toulous) and had you looked in her countenance for a symptom by which to discover how the game stood, you would have turned away unsatisfied; for calm seriousness was alone discernible, and the cards fell from her fingers as steadily as though she were handling only a knitting needle. But the man who sat opposite to her exhibited the full reverse of this. His fingers trembled, as, with an affectation of unconcern, he drummed upon the table; and his eye watched each card as it fell with searching and intense scrutiny. He was betting largely, and losing, and the other gamesters had ceased their own play to be spectators of the exciting contention. Again and again the long fingers of Senora Toulous swept off the piles of gold, and again were they replaced by the unsteady fingers of her opponent.18
It is obvious now that Senora Toulous had a marvelous “poker face.”
Manuel Alvarez replaced Louis as first alcalde on January 1, 1840. Louis had seen the last of the era of good feelings in Santa Fe, particularly the feelings toward Americans, even Americans like Louis who had become naturalized Mexican citizens. Though many embraced the religion, language, and way of life, intermarried, and become politically active, their style of business, highly visible prosperity, their continued talk of association with the United States, and family connections there made them suspect to native Mexicans. Governor Armijo did not like the foreigners, for he considered Robidoux and others like him as such despite their citizenship, and imposed new tariffs or outright prohibitions against products brought in from the United States and valuable commodities like gold or silver bullion sent out over the trails to Missouri. The situation grew more sobering over 1840, and by the end of it, Louis had affixed his name to a letter sent to Alcalde Alvarez thanking him for his support of the ex-patriot Americans against the wrath of Governor Armijo.19
During the late autumn of 1840, Antoine spent some time back in northwest Missouri. In Weston, a town in Platte County just south of his brother Joseph's Blacksnake Hills post, he encountered a man named John Bidwell, who, after hearing that Antoine had been to California, invited him to speak to a group of prospective immigrants. Bidwell wrote in his recollections,
In November or December of 1840, while still teaching school in Platte County, I came across a Frenchman named Roubidoux [sic], who said he had been to California. He had been a trader in New Mexico, and had followed the road traveled by traders from the frontier of Missouri to Santa Fe. He had probably gone through what is now New Mexico and Arizona into California by the Gila River trail used by the Mexicans. His description of California was of the superlative degree favorable, so much so that I resolved if possible to see that wonderful land, and with others helped to get up a meeting at Weston and invited him to make a statement before it in regard to the country. At that time when a man moved West, as soon as he was fairly settled he wanted to move again, and naturally every question imaginable was asked in regard to this wonderful country. Robidoux described it as one of perennial spring and boundless fertility, and laid stress on the countless thousands of wild horses and cattle. He told about oranges, and hence must have been at Los Angeles or the mission of San Gabriel, a few miles from it. Every conceivable question that we could ask him was answered favorably. Generally the first question which a Missourian asked about a country was whether there was any fever and ague. I remember his answer distinctly. He said there was but one man in California that had ever had a chill there, and it was a matter of so much wonderment to the people of Monterey that they went eighteen miles into the country to see him shake. Nothing could have been more satisfactory on the score of health. He said that the Spanish authorities were most friendly, and that the people were the most hospitable on the globe; that you could travel all over California and it would cost you nothing for horses or feed. Even the Indians were friendly. His description of the country made it seem like a paradise.20
During December 1841, Antoine and one of his noted contemporaries, Manuel Alvarez, found themselves trapped by a blizzard on the Santa Fe trail. The information, supplied by James Collins in a letter ten years after the fact, said they had left Missouri for Santa Fe, but considering they drove large herds of mules and horses it may well have been the reverse. Antoine and Alvarez traveled as separate parties. The blizzard buried them on the Cottonwood Creek in the vicinity of Council Grove, in east-central Kansas one hundred miles from the Missouri border. The snow fell so hard and fast that in Alvarez's party, “two men and all his mules were frozen to death and the snow drifted in such torrents as to extinguish the fires in a very few minutes.” Antoine faired no better. “They lost in one night over 400 mules and horses, and one or two men, and narrowly escaped the loss of the entire party.”21
With the rising tide of anti-American sentiment in Santa Fe, Louis made the monumental decision to sell off some of his property, including a house, business building, and gristmill to Roque Tudesqui on March 20, 1841. Louis may have concluded that it was best to plan to get out of New Mexico while he could still use his name and reputation to get a fair price, rather than wait and possibly lose what he had through confiscation by a growingly hostile government and community of neighbors inspired by Governor Armijo. If he had made a decision where to go after Santa Fe, we do not know. He could obviously go to join Joseph and his other brothers in Missouri and continue in the family business there. He still owned some property in St. Louis at the time and might have considered returning to his hometown. California offered another option, and although there is no record of him having personally traveled there, Antoine had most certainly been that way, as previously eluded to, and told him about it, and there existed a traffic over the Old Spanish Trail and Gila River routes that brought traders and travelers from California through Santa Fe on their way east.22
After transacting his business and possibly in response to the absence of Antoine from the region, Louis embarked on a journey during the spring of 1841 to check on the operations at Fort Unitah, part of his investment portfolio he held along with brother Antoine. He purchased from his close friend Manuel Alvarez guns and mules and other kit for a long trip into Indian country, including a pair of spurs. Riding north into Utah, he reached the area of Willow Creek where he left an inscription on a canyon wall, which read, “Lousi [sic] Robidoux left his mark on a canyon wall of Willow Creek in Utah, Passo qui el clincle mayo de 1841,” which means or translates as “Louis Robidoux passed here this fifth day of May of 1841.”23
While at the Unitah post he may have met Kit Carson, but we do not know how long he stayed there. After leaving the Unitah post he traveled back to Missouri. During July 1841 he arrived in St. Louis, selling a lot bounded by Second and Market Streets for four hundred dollars to Joseph Lavielle and George Morton. Louis signed the deed on July 8. By November Louis returned to Santa Fe where the governor waited, highly interested in collecting fifty pesos owed to him.24
During his absence from Santa Fe, Louis missed another major event that further soured the situation for American traders in New Mexico. After the successful Texas Revolt of 1836, the new Texas Republic claimed lands much more extensive than represented by the present state's geography. By claiming all the land west to the Rio Grande del Norte, Santa Fe and Taos came under the domain of the new republic. After five years, the president of Texas, Mirabeau Lamar, dispatched a military expedition to bring eastern New Mexico under Texas rule. Departing from Austin in June 1841, six companies of Texans under Hugh McLeod set off to liberate Santa Fe from the “tyrannical” rule of Governor Armijo. Armijo anticipated the invasion and in September intercepted and captured the Texans. He threatened to execute them all before eventually marching them off to Mexico City. The approach of the Texans had not touched off a rebellion against Armijo, but anyone associated with Americans or the American trade came under even greater suspicion and pressure.25
It is from the summer and fall of 1842 that we have one of
the best-documented periods of just where Antoine operated and traveled. Foremost, the notes made by John C. Fremont give excellent geographic observation of the region around the Unitah site. Beginning on June 1, 1842, Fremont observed,
We left today the Duchesne fork, and after traversing a broken country for about sixteen miles, arrived at noon at another considerable branch, a river of great velocity, to which the trappers have improperly given the name Lake fork. The name applied to it by the Indians signifies great swiftness, and is the same they use to express the speed of a race horse. It is spread out in various channels over several hundred yards, and in every where too deep and swift to be forded. At this season of the year, there is an uninterrupted noise from the large rocks which are rolled along the bed. After infinite difficulty, and the delay of a day, we succeeded in getting the stream bridged, and got over with the loss of one of our animals. Continuing our rout across a broken country, of which the higher parts were rocky and timbered with cedar, and the lower covered with good grass, we reached, on the afternoon of the 3d, the Unitah fort, a trading post belonging to Mr. A. Roubideau [sic], on the principal fork of the Unitah river. We forded the stream nearly as rapid and difficult as the Lake fork, divided into several channels, which were too broad to be bridged. With the aid of guides from the fort, we succeeded, with very great difficulty, in fording it and encamped near the fort, which is situated a short distance above the junction of two branches which make the river.
The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West Page 23