The opening of the feeder trail from St. Joseph, which crossed the northwest corner of Kansas and merged with the main Oregon-California Trail at Fort Kearny on the Platte River in Nebraska, stimulated immediate economic opportunity for Joseph Robidoux and the merchants of his town. The population grew rapidly, along with the number of trading houses, and the surrounding farming community. Political organization came to St. Joseph when the state legislature granted a charter of incorporation on February 26, 1845. Joseph Robidoux sat as the town's first president of the board of trustees, presiding over six other businessmen and lawyers. The trustees first met on May 5, 1845. Joseph showed little inclination to directly manage his town and on June 9, 1845, with barely a month under his belt, he resigned the chairmanship to John Carter. In those first meetings town fathers made important decisions to ensure St. Joseph's position as the jumping-off point for crossing the plains. They licensed Jeremiah Lewis to operate a ferry service at the town's own landing and limited the number of ferry companies that could come into business to control traffic on the river. The following year, the board of trustees established ferry rates designed to keep the St. Joseph ferry operations competitive with those both below and above on the Missouri.2
Joseph took steps toward making his town the county seat. On May 30, 1845, he donated twenty-two of his town lots to Buchanan County. The lots included an entire city block and half of another. The county seat resided in a little inland town called Sparta, a few miles south of St. Joseph. The businessmen of the community wanted the county seat and Joseph had the wherewithal to entice the judges to move.3
Joseph's town got a newspaper in 1845, established and edited by William Ridenbaugh, who became St. Joseph's loudest drum beater. Initially, Ridenbaugh called it The Gazette. In an editorial published shortly after going to press for the first time, he introduced the town of St. Joseph to the rest of the world in a masterful work of promotional literature. Ridenbaugh knew his paper, like all newspapers of the day, would be read and handed on to others, placed on coaches and steamboats, and wind up in the most distant places, often reprinted by editors of other papers. “In consideration that the town of St. Joseph is yet quite young, that very little has been written concerning it, that comparatively few persons have visited it, and that this is the first newspaper published here, we will be indulged in writing an article whose object is to let people know what kind of place is our town and what are its prospects. This article is intended for persons at a distance, and we will suppose that the reader knows nothing whatever of St. Joseph.”4
With an economy of words, he accurately and honestly described Joe Robidoux's town. “St. Joseph is situated on the east bank of the Missouri river, about 575 miles above St. Louis, and about 75 miles by the river from Fort Leavenworth. It is now about twenty months since this place was laid off into town lots: it contains 682 inhabitants: the original proprietor, Joseph Robidoux, has sold 316 lots to private individuals: there are twelve large mercantile establishments, three hotels, and a host of mechanics of all trades. Improvement is now rapidly going on in St. Joseph, and the mechanics all seem engaged. Much, very much trade is done by our merchants, we presume each one does a good business now, notwithstanding several potent causes have operated to curtail trade. Most of the ready money of the farmers has been taken for the last few years to pay for their land, the country is very new, and sufficiently large farms are not yet open, and for the last two years the crops have failed almost entirely. There are many circumstances connected with St. Joseph which conspire to make it not only a large but important place.”5
Ridenbaugh knew the importance of promoting St. Joseph as a major jumping-off point for passage to Oregon. His paper routinely covered the organization of the various wagon trains and plugged the advantages of St. Joseph. An article in the May 2, 1845, edition of the Gazette described a large train forming and ready to leave. “Wm G. Tvault Esq. is the elected captain of the company, with whom we have some conversations and thereby gained the following information. It is estimated that the company when made up and organized fully, will consist of about one thousand persons, one hundred wagons, and about two thousand cattle. It was ascertained by examination that each family had a full supply of provisions, and the whole wealth of the company is near one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. We visited their camping ground on the morning of the day when they started and accompanied them a short distance. Most of the families were comfortably prepared for traveling, and believed themselves as comfortable as if in a dwelling house. All seemed full of resolution, and we were surprised to see such cheerfulness, with the women as well as men.”6
The Gazette filled with ads from all the businessmen in town, including the Robidoux family. Joseph placed an ad beginning on July 11, 1845, beginning with, “LOOK HERE. All persons indebted to the undersigned are requested to come forward immediately and make payment. All who fail to comply with this notice will find their notes in the hands of officers for collection. Signed, Jos. Robidoux.” Clearly, there must have been a number of persons who had bought town lots and still not paid. Joseph, with a note to be paid to the Chouteaus, needed to collect. Jules C. Robidoux, Joseph's oldest son by Angelique, operated a trading house that advertised “all kinds of goods, cloth, dishes, cast iron products, boots, hats, hemp, hides and beeswax” and reminded all that “I can and will sell goods at the very lowest prices.” By that time Jules had become prominent in the St. Joseph business community, supplanting his father as the dominant Robidoux on Main Street. Joseph III had already experienced the onset of diminished eyesight and trusted his son to operate the storefront. By no means did Joseph retire, and he kept his hand in that activity he loved, the Indian trade.
It is evident that by 1845 all the Robidoux brothers except Louis had moved to or operated out of St. Joseph, on their own or as part of Joseph's business empire. The M. & F. Robidoux Store ran ads as well. An ad appearing in the December 19, 1845, issue of the Gazette stated, “Wheat Wanted,” with the signature A. Robidoux affixed. The M. & F. belonged to Michel and Francois, and the A. stood for Antoine. The brothers Michel and Francois did business in St. Joseph, either independent of or at times with the backing of older brother Joseph. In the same edition, another generation of the family, Francis Robidoux, one of Joseph III son's, ran an ad offering to sell nine town lots.7
Ridenbaugh wrote in 1846 that Robidoux's town had reached the population of 1,000 and boasted thirteen large mercantile houses. “They are capable of furnishing every article in the Grocery and Drygoods line that may be required for an outfit, at prices as cheap, as the emigrant can bring with them from St. Louis.” And not opposed to name dropping, Ridenbaugh added, “Intelligent gentlemen (with previous Oregon companies) have written, from there, advising their friends and those desirous of profiting by their experience, to make St. Joseph the point, whence to take their departure for Oregon, being much the nearest and best route, and where all necessary supplies can be furnished. Mr. Clarke (well acquainted with the country between St. Joseph and Ft. Laramie) acted in the capacity of Pilot for the last Oregon company that left St. Joseph, and pronounces it to be the best and nearest route, having an abundance of grass, timber and water, for the use of the emigrants, and at regular intervals for camping.”8
Joseph knew the tide of emigrants coming through his town meant good business. In ever-growing numbers they arrived in his town to launch to the west, during the travel season, which began in April and lasted through July. But beyond his town, the route across the Great Plains offered more potential for profit. Beyond Fort Kearny on the Platte in Nebraska, there lay nothing of white civilization until the emigrants reached Fort Laramie in eastern Wyoming. That site lay over four hundred miles away, along the sprawling river that gave its name to one of the most famous roads in the history of the West, the Great Platte River Road. Two miles wide and two feet deep, the Platte River ambled across central Nebraska, giving emigrants halcyon conditions during the early miles. Reaching the
forks of the Platte, the main road veered to the north, forcing emigrants to ford the south fork then cross over a prodigious hill at Ash Hollow before falling in along the North Platte. When the land began to rise in western Nebraska, emigrants encountered strange and wonderful geologic anomalies, like Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff. The rugged area at the Bluff forced the emigrants away from the river and through a narrow pass a few miles south of the massive mound of sandstone and clay forming today's national monument.9
There being no substitute for the firsthand knowledge of the area, through years of trading with the Sioux, members of the Robidoux family, brothers Francois, Isadore, and Michel, most certainly visited Scott's Bluff to scout for business potential. Joseph's nephews, and likely his eldest son, Joseph E., headed west along the trail to the vicinity of the great Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff, positioning themselves to offer assistance to the emigrants at, of course, the right price. By planting themselves fifty miles east of the American Fur Company post on the Laramie River, managed by James Bordeaux, they stood clearly in front of the competition. Joseph's family engaged and embraced the potential along the Platte River Road with the full financial backing of the old patriarch in St. Joseph.10
As the pace of the migration to Oregon increased, emigrants more frequently encountered various members of Joseph's clan on the trail from the Missouri River crossings to the Rocky Mountains. One of the Robidoux brothers, or possibly a son or nephew, encountered the emigrant train of Joseph Aram, west along the Platte River Road, in 1846. Some Pawnee Indians, through whose territory the trail from St. Joseph passed, waylaid the emigrants and robbed them. “Roubedeau the Frenchman” intervened by telling the emigrants to take the chief of the band prisoner, which they did, binding him. According to Aram, the chief “sang out at the top of his voice and in less than 5 minutes every stolen article was returned.” Kit Carson, well acquainted with the Robidoux clan, served as the pilot of the emigrant train.11
In mid-June 1846, Francis Parkman, an Oregon emigrant and historian, reported meeting another emigrant train bound for Fort Laramie, camping in the pass near Scott's Bluff. According to Parkman one of the Robidouxs guided the company. Parkman did not reveal which one, but the observation only re-enforces that some member or members of the Robidoux family had firsthand knowledge of the area. Quite possibly Parkman encountered the Aram train, which had picked up an additional guide after the incident with the Pawnees.12
In September 1847, Mormons, returning from Great Salt Lake encountered two “Rubidoos” hunting and trading buffalo in the vicinity of Chimney Rock. Those Robidouxs might have been Joseph's oldest son, Joseph E., or his nephews, Antoine and Sellico. Possibly, brother Michel had gone out, working the area around Fort Laramie, but not Antoine, who would have still been engaged with Kearny.13
Not long after the founding of his town, Joseph Robidoux, along with boosters like Ridenbaugh, the newspaper editor, and newly arrived business and professional men, John Corby and Robert M. Stewart, began to broach the idea of St. Joseph being a natural point of extension for rail service from Chicago. Stewart, born in New York, migrated to Missouri via Kentucky, and arrived in St. Joseph in 1845. With Ridenbaugh's support he won election to the Missouri senate in 1846. He immediately began to push for a railroad to connect St. Joseph with Hannibal, Missouri, directly across the northern tier of the state. In early 1847, Stewart introduced a bill to charter the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad Company, and it passed on February 16, 1847.14
Joseph Robidoux, John Corby, and Robert Boyd served on the board of directors of the new company. As a private railroad venture it needed to raise capital and immediately the subscription books opened, asking for $2 million. Joseph's name appeared in numerous newspaper columns promoting the sale of the $100 shares, but the response proved light in his own town. Many local men of substance who could have supported the railroad still favored the steam-powered riverboat as the best access to the city. Nothing happened until 1849 when a survey of the route to Hannibal commenced. Finally, in 1851 the Missouri state legislature voted for $3.5 million in bonds to support railroad building across the state. The Hannibal and St. Joseph Company got $1.5 million, secured by a mortgage against the railroad.15
At the beginning of 1847, Joseph appeared anxious to finish off the business of town real estate developer. On January 8, 1847, he ran the following ad in the Gazette. “Town lots for sale. Will sell cheap for cash any number of lots in the town of St. Joseph. Bargains will be given. Embrace the opportunity as another will not soon be given. Signed, Jos. Robidoux.”16
During the emigrant season of 1847, St. Joseph surpassed Independence as the main jumping-off point for the Oregon Trail. Of the 1,300 estimated wagons that left that year for the 2,000-mile trek to the Willamette Valley, 867 departed from St. Joseph and 433 from Independence. The size of individual trains varied, from as few as 23 up to 109. Once ferried across the Missouri, trains had to space themselves, sometimes 10 to 15 miles apart, to ensure enough grass for the horses and oxen along the way. At least 15 trains left from St. Joseph according the Gazette. Ridenbaugh seized the opportunity to blast Independence, and the apparent badmouthing that city had been disseminating about St. Joseph. “The large number that have made this their starting point, proves conclusively that they consider this the best route, and the cry of ‘high prices’ and ‘bad roads’ falls harmless to the ground. The citizens of Independence may ‘brag and boast’ as much as they please, but rest assured that in two more seasons, the entire emigration for Oregon and California will make St. Joseph the starting point.”17
Pierre Chouteau Jr. had not given up on the fur trade yet, although by the late 1840s markets were down along with demand. In new combinations, he continued to find new venues to keep the business going. In 1847, Chouteau worked with Andrew Drips and called on his old friend in St. Joseph to help. Drips had plans to ascend the Missouri River to Fort Pierre, where he had worked the previous four years for the American Fur Company suppressing the liquor trade among the Indians, but had difficulty finding men. Chouteau wrote to Drips at Kansas City, “We have been informed by Capt. Labarge that men could be hired at Blacksnake Hills. We therefore have written to Joseph Robidoux and authorized him to get 10 or 20 men to be in readiness by the time the steam boat reaches that point. Signed, P. Chouteau Jr. & Co.” It is significant that Chouteau referred to Drips location as Kansas City and not Westport or Independence, the better-known names for that site near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers.18
Joseph, the town builder of late, remained a licensed Indian trader. With the trade in furs along the lower Missouri almost completely dried up by the 1840s, the hunt took Joseph's sons and nephews much farther afield. The upper Missouri region including the northern Great Plains, and the Platte River valley, east to the Rocky Mountains still held potential for both deerskins and buffalo robes. Western Nebraska appeared to offer the greatest potential, as emigrant travelers and adventurers passing both ways along the Platte saw herds of buffalo and other four-legged fur-bearing creatures. The nature of the Indian trade in the immediate area no longer pivoted on the trading of pelts, although the hunt did continue, but on the extending of credit to the Indians until the annuities from the government were paid and collected.
Joseph remained active in the local Indian trade, dealing with the Nemaha Agency in northeast Kansas about thirty miles from St. Joseph, also called the Ioway Agency, with field operations farther up the Missouri, and for that matter directly across the river from St. Joseph where tribes periodically camped in the heavily wooded areas along the riverbank. The Ioway had a temporary village of thirty lodges there in 1848.19 Joseph's town attracted the Indians from the nearby agencies and they were frequently seen there from the founding through the 1850s. They crossed on the ferries and walked the streets visiting various stores. Rudolph Friederich Kurz described the interchange in his journal. “Even during the first month of my stay in St. Joseph I had chances every day to study Indian
s that came in bands from different neighboring tribes. It was the time when the yearly payments were made for the land extorted from them. As soon as the father received the money for himself and members of his family (the Ioway received $8 a head from the United States Indian Agent) they came to St. Joseph to make their purchases, because they could supply their needs there at more reasonable rates than with the traders. Still many Indians were in debt to the latter and, in that case, the traders had the first claim on the payment.”20
Joseph Robidoux fit into the trader category. He preferred to deal with the agency Indians before they reached St. Joseph and the storekeepers, who stood more than willing to take the Indian's money. He employed several engagés, with Benjamin Hardin as his chief clerk, as Joseph's age by then had limited his range. They kept up a steady stream of business correspondence, some of which survives in Hardin's letter book. Hardin's letters are important because they identify several members of Joseph's family, relations with local chiefs and army officers at the agencies, and aspects of his employer's personal life. In the letters we also learn what the Indians had to trade, what they wanted, and how they paid for it in the twilight of the old fur-trade period.
The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West Page 27