The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West

by Robert J. Willoughby

26. Morgan, 1–19. Also see David Frost, Notes on General Ashley, The Overland Trail, and South Pass (Barre, MA: Barre Gazette, 1960), 12–17. Phillips, 2:395–397.

  27. Morgan, 1–19. Frost, 12–17. The Arikara had established their position as a periodically hostile tribe, attacking some traders, while letting others pass their villages on the upper Missouri.

  28. Missouri Intelligencer, October 29, 1822.

  29. David J. Weber, The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540–1846 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 53–54. Also see Robert Glass Cleland, This Reckless Breed of Men: The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950), 127–128.

  30. For an excellent overview of the geography of the Santa Fe Trail, see Stephen G. Hyslop, Bound for Santa Fe: The Road to New Mexico and the American Conquest, 1806–1848 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), pt. 2. Cleland, 127–128.

  31. Weber, Taos Trappers, 55–56. Weber cites the journal of Jacob Fowler, who chronicled Glenn's expedition.

  32. Leroy Hafen, 1:64–65. Mattes, “Joseph Robidoux,” 8:297. Also see Morgan, 154, and Dale Morgan and Eleanor Harris, eds., The Rocky Mountain Journals of William Marshall Anderson: The West in 1834 (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1967), 343.

  33. Missouri Intelligencer, September 3, 1822.

  34. Ibid.

  35. F. F. Stephens, “Missouri and the Santa Fe Trade,” Missouri Historical Review 11, no. 3 (April 1917): 289–292.

  36. Morgan, 10.

  37. Missouri Intelligencer, September 17, 1822.

  38. Letter, O'Fallon to Pilcher, August 1, 1823, in Morgan, 51 n. 243.

  39. Morgan, 23–25. Frost, 18–19.

  40. Morgan, 25–58.

  41. Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wurttemberg, “First Journey of North America in the Years 1822 to 1824,” trans. William G. Bek, South Dakota Historical Collections 19 (1938): 347–364.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Saint Louis Enquirer, reprinted in the Missouri Intelligencer, June 5, 1824.

  45. Letter, Bartholomu Baca to Benjamin O'Fallon, February 21, 1824, reprinted in the Missouri Intelligencer, June 5, 1824.

  46. St. Louis Republican, May 11, 1823.

  47. Rebecca Craver, The Impact of Intimacy: Mexican-Anglo Intermarriage in New Mexico, 1821–1846 (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1982), 4.

  48. Missouri Intelligencer, May 13, 1823.

  Chapter 4

  1. Ned Blackhawk, Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 122–123.

  2. Diary of James Kennerly, November 8, 1823, Kennerly Family Papers, MHS.

  3. Diary of James Kennerly, February 15, 1823, Kennerly Family Papers, MHS. Regarding the supposition of Francois, see Wesley, 54.

  4. The Robidoux passport is found in William Ritch Papers, RI 79, Huntington Library. Also see Weber, Taos Trappers, 75. The movements of Etienne Provost during 1823–1824 are as vague as those of the Robidouxs. Leroy Hafen's biography of him does not specifically identify where he might have been, but Donald Frost, quoting Hiram Chittenden, put Provost in the company of Andrew Henry's men in the autumn of 1823, leading a party of trappers south from the Wind River area. Frost, 32. Also see Leroy Hafen, “Etienne Provost,” in MMFT, 6:371–372.

  5. Weber, Taos Trappers, 74.

  6. Ralph Emerson Twitchell, The Leading Facts of New Mexican History (Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch Press, 1912), 2:146.

  7. Joseph C. Brown, “Field Notes on the Santa Fe Trail Survey,” in Southwest on the Turquoise Trail, ed. Archer Butler Hulbert (Denver, CO: Denver Public Library, 1933), 130. Weber, Taos Trappers, 66.

  8. For an excellent overview of the field operations of the mountain trappers, see Chittenden, 40–43.

  9. Leroy Hafen and Ann Hafen, Old Spanish Trail (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1954), 94, 100–101.

  10. Rufus B. Sage, “Scenes in the Rocky Mountains,” in Rufus B. Sage: His Letters and Papers 1836–1847, ed. Leroy Hafen and Ann Hafen, 2 vols. (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1956), 2:90.

  11. Missouri Intelligencer, April 19, 1825.

  12. Joseph J. Hill, “Antoine Robidoux, Kingpin in the Colorado River Fur Trade, 1824–1844,” Colorado Magazine 7, no. 4 (July 1930): 126.

  13. Hafen and Hafen, Old Spanish Trail, 95–99. A corroboration of the attack was made by a British trader, Peter Ogden in 1828, reporting seven Americans and one British trader killed by the Snake in 1824. Also see Hafen, “Etienne Provost,” 6:372–374.

  14. Wesley, 75.

  15. Thomas E. Chavez, Manuel Alvarez, 1794–1856: A Southwestern Biography (Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1990), 12–13.

  16. Letter, J. P. Cabanne to Pierre Chouteau Jr., October 11, 1824, American Fur Company 346, MHS.

  17. Abstract of Licenses, January 17, 1825, 18th Congress, 2nd Session, Document 54.

  18. Berthold refers to Bartholomew Berthold, who came to St. Louis in 1809 and married into the Chouteau family, becoming brother-in-law to Pierre Chouteau Jr. Ibid.

  19. Ibid. The reference to Laforce is Alexander LaForce Papin, a St. Louis French trader and contemporary of Joseph Robidoux.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Chavez, Manuel Alvarez, 12–13.

  22. Weber, Taos Trappers, 67–70.

  23. Missouri Intelligencer, April 19, 1825. “Sketches From the Life of Peg-leg Smith,” Hutchings Illustrated California Magazine 5, no. 7 (January 1861): 318–319.

  24. Rebecca Craver, The Impact of Intimacy: Mexican-Anglo Intermarriage in New Mexico, 1821–1846 (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1882), 1–7.

  25. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau, March 15, 1825, American Fur Company 393, MHS.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Ibid. Also see, Morgan, 154.

  28. Letter, J. P. Cabanne to Pierre Chouteau Jr., April 28, 1825, American Fur Company 397, MHS.

  29. Regarding Cabanne and Sylvestre Pratte, see David J. Weber, “Sylvestre S. Pratte,” in Leroy Hafen, ed., The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West, 10 vols. (Spokane, WA: Arthur H. Clark Company, 2001), 6:359–370.

  30. Letter, J. P. Cabanne to Pierre Chouteau Jr., April 28, 1825, American Fur Company 397, MHS.

  31. Ibid.

  32. The movements of Ashley are well documented in Morgan and Frost. For Ashley's own narrative see, Harrison C. Dale, The Ashley-Smith Explorations and the Discovery of a Central Route to the Pacific, 1822–1829 (Cleveland, OH: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1918), 121–162.

  33. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau, March 15, 1825, American Fur Company 393, MHS.

  34. Letter, Governor Baca to the Alcalde of Taos, March 3, 1825. Mexican Archives of New Mexico, hereafter cited as MANM.

  35. Fray Angelico Chavez, “New Names in New Mexico, 1820–1850,” El Palacio 64, no. 12 (1957): 373. For an overview of marital issues facing traders and trappers, see William Swagerty, “Marriage and Settlement Patterns of Rocky Mountain Trappers and Traders,” Western Historical Quarterly 11, no. 2 (April 1980): 159–180.

  36. Weber, Taos Trappers, 88. Also see Morgan, n. 152.

  37. Letter, J. P. Cabanne to Pierre Chouteau Jr., July 27, 1825, American Fur Company 401, MHS. Regarding Michel's marriage, see “Earl Fischer Database of St. Louisans,” http://stlgs.org/efdb/d475.htm.

  38. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., July 27, 1825, American Fur Company 401, MHS.

  39. Abstract of Licenses, March 6, 1826, 19th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Document 118.

  40. Diary of James Kennerly, August 30–31, 1825, Kennerly Family Papers, MHS. Wesley, 78.

  41. Diary of James Kennerly, September 3, 1825, Kennerly Family Papers, MHS. Wesley, 79. Weber, in Taos Trappers believes the furs were delivered by Francois, under the assumption that Michel had to be in Missouri in late June in order to need the passport to cross Indian lands. Possibly, Joseph named the wrong brother in his letter.

 
42. Part of the First Regiment had been sent to Fort Atkinson in response to the brief Arikara War of 1823. St. Cir, is probably Hyacinthe St. Cyr, a St. Louis French trader. Diary of James Kennerly, September 13–16, 1825, Kennerly Family Papers, MHS. Wesley, 80.

  43. The Missouri Intelligencer, reprinted in the St. Louis Republican, September 5, 1825. Regarding Narbona, see Weber, Taos Trappers, 67.

  44. Ibid. Also see “Answers of Augustus Storrs to Queries Addressed to Him by the hon. Thomas Hart Benton,” in Archer Hulbert, Southwest on the Turquoise Trail (Denver, CO: Denver Public Library, 1933), 84–85.

  45. Weber, Taos Trappers, 94.

  46. St. Louis Republican, October 19, 1826.

  47. Letter, Francois Robidoux to Severino Martinez, January 14, 1825, Ritch Papers No. 82, Huntington Library.

  48. Abstract of Licenses to Trade With Indians, Document 86, 19th Congress, 2nd Session, February 8, 1827. Also see, Weber, Taos Trappers, 89.

  49. Diary of James Kennerly, November 27, 1825, Kennerly Family Papers, MHS. Wesley, 88.

  50. Diary of James Kennerly, December 11–13, 1825, Kennerly Family Papers, MHS. Wesley, 90.

  51. Diary of James Kennerly, January 2, 1826, Kennerly Family Papers, MHS. Wesley, 93.

  52. David J. Weber, The Extranjeros: Selected Documents From the Mexican Side of the Santa Fe Trail, 1825–1828 (Santa Fe, NM: Stagecoach Press, 1967), 19–22.

  53. Craver, 27–28.

  54. Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 8:317.

  55. Ibid., 29–34.

  56. Hafen, MMFT, 1:67–68.

  57. Weber, “Pratte,” 6:364. Also see Weber, Taos Trappers, 88, 95, 105. Further regarding Michel's leadership, see Robert Glass Cleland, This Reckless Breed of Men: The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950), 179.

  58. Weber, Taos Trappers, 114–115.

  59. Pattie's narrative has been criticized for the accuracy of dates. By all other accounts the events he described next took place in January 1827 assuming his month correct, or even late in the autumn of 1826. The mines he refers to were the Santa Rita copper mines between the Rio Grande and the Gila River. James O. Pattie, “The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie of Kentucky,” ed. Timothy Flint (1833), in Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels: 1748–1846, 32 vols. (rpt.; New York: AMS Press, 1966), 18:118–119. Also see Hafen, MMFT, 69.

  60. Ibid., 18:120–121. Also see Weber, “Pratte,” 6:365. Michel's probable leadership is confirmed in a letter between Governor Narbona and the governor of Sonora dated August 31, 1826. Weber, Taos Trappers, 120. Weber cites anthropologists who suggest the Indians encountered by Robidoux and Pattie were actually Apache. Weber, Taos Trappers, 123.

  61. Ibid.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Ibid., 126.

  66. Ibid.,127–128.

  67. Hafen, MMFT, 1:105–107.

  68. List of moneys received by the Collector of the County of St. Louis, St. Louis Republican, May 11, 1826.

  69. Receipt, August 25, 1827, Chouteau-Maffitt Collection, MHS.

  70. Weber, Taos Trappers, 35–38. Also see Thomas Chavez, 18. Morgan and Harris, Anderson, 281.

  Chapter 5

  1. Abstract of Licenses to Trade With Indians, Document 86, 19th Congress, 2nd Session, February 8, 1827.

  2. Letter, Lewis Cass to James Barbour, February 2, 1826, American State Papers, 08, Indian Affairs, Volume 2:659.

  3. Letter, B. Berthold to J. P. Cabanne, December 9, 1826, American Fur Company 512, MHS.

  4. For licensing information for Indian trade, see Abstract of Licenses Granted to Trade With Indians, Document 140, 20th Congress, 1st Session, February 12, 1828. Also see Morgan, 157, 307–308.

  5. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., October 23, 1827, American Fur Company 531, MHS.

  6. Letter, Thomas L. McKenney to James Barbour, February 14, 1826, American State Papers, 08, Indian Affairs, Volume 2:660.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., September 8, 1827, American Fur Company 527, MHS.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., January 6, 1828, American Fur Company 540, MHS.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Letter, Pierre Chouteau Jr. to Ramsey Crooks, February 11, 1828, American Fur Company 544, MHS.

  13. Letter, Ramsey Crooks to Pierre Chouteau Jr., April 6, 1828, American Fur Company 549, MHS.

  14. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., May 10, 1828, American Fur Company 553, MHS.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., August 24, 1828, American Fur Company 559, MHS.

  17. Abstract of Licenses to Trade With the Indians, Document 84, 20th Congress, 2nd Session, January 20, 1829.

  18. Letter, Ramsey Crooks to Pierre Chouteau Jr., September 14, 1828, American Fur Company 563, MHS.

  19. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., October 14, 1828, American Fur Company 568, MHS.

  20. Inventory dated April 24, 1829, found in the P. Chouteau-Maffitt Collection, MHS.

  21. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., March 27, 1829, American Fur Company 582, MHS.

  22. Letter, Deroin and Robidoux to Chouteau, July 29, 1829, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  23. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., October 26, 1828, American Fur Company 569, MHS.

  24. Warren Ferris, Life in the Rocky Mountains, 1830–1835, ed. Herbert Auerbach (Salt Lake City, UT: Rocky Mountain Book Shop, 1940), 9, 13.

  25. Alan C. Trottman, “Lucien Fontenelle,” in Trappers of the Far West, ed. Leroy Hafen (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972), 130.

  26. Ferris, 13, 21.

  27. Ibid., 45.

  28. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., October 8, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  29. Oscar Collet, Index to Instruments Affecting Real Estate Recorded in the Office of Recorder of Deeds in the County of St. Louis, Mo. Grantors, Vol. I—Part III, N–Z (St. Louis, MO: Ennis, Stationers, Printers, and Binders, 1974).

  30. “John Work's Journal: Aug 22, 1830–Apr 20, 1831,” Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 13 (1912): 363–371.

  31. Ferris, 51.

  32. Ibid., 53–58. Also see Hafen, MMFT, 106. Morgan and Harris, 21, 284, 293, 308, 323–324.

  33. Receipt, M. Robidoux to Powell, August 19, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  34. Letter, Fontenelle to Andrew Drips, August 1, 1835, Andrew Drips Papers, MHS. Morgan and Harris, 323–324.

  Chapter 6

  1. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., March 23, 1829, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  2. Ibid., July 11, 1829.

  3. Note, Levi Piggot to Baril Sarpy, March 3, 1830, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  4. Contract, Francois Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., February 10, 1832, Chouteau-Maffit Collection, MHS.

  5. History of Buchanan County Missouri, 391.

  6. Letter, J. P. Cabanné to Pierre Chouteau Jr., December 29, 1828, American Fur Company 573, MHS. Also see 19th Congress, Senate Document 58. Morgan, 156. Mattes, “Joseph Robidoux,” 8:300.

  7. Letter, Palin Mitchell to J. P. Cabanné, November 29, 1829, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  8. Draft of treaty, July 16, 1830, Papers of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, William Clark Papers, Volume 4:137, microfilm MS 94.

  9. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., September 10, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  10. Abstract of Licenses, February 23, 1832, 22nd Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Document 121.

  11. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., September 10, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  12. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau, September 15, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  13. Ibid., September 24, 1831.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Ibid., Octo
ber 8, 1831.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Robidoux discussed having temporary control of Indian annuity goods in a letter to Pierre Chouteau Jr., July 30, 1839, American Fur Company 1135, MHS.

  19. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., October 21, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  20. A visitor to Robidoux's outpost in 1839 commented on Robidoux's Indian wives and scaffolds on which some of his Indian children's bodies had been laid after death. From an excerpt of Abel Paxton's Annals of Platte County in “Historical News and Comments,” Missouri Historical Review 11 (1916): 107–108.

  21. One of the best sources describing the early Blacksnake Hills post and its hinterland comes from the observations and recounting of stories about Robidoux by Rudolph Freiderich Kurz, a Swiss artist who visited the St. Joseph area frequently during the 1840s. See J. N. B. Hewitt, ed., Journal of Rudolph Friedrich Kurz (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970), 54–68.

  22. Account of goods delivered, May 15, 1834, Chouteau-Maffitt Collection, MHS.

  23. Robidoux mentions cutting wood for the steamboats in a letter to Pierre Chouteau, February 9, 1834, MHS.

  24. Letters, Joseph Robidoux to Jean Baptiste Sarpy, November 27, 1831, December 6, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  25. Promissory note, L. Fontenelle to Robidoux, November 25, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  26. Letters, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., October 19, 1831, November 1, 1831, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  27. Letter, Joseph E. Robidoux to Joseph Robidoux, January 19, 1832, and letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., March 16, 1833, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  28. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., March 2, 1832, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  29. Abstract of Licenses, February 13, 1833, 22nd Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives, Document 104.

  30. Abstract of Licenses, January 16, 1834, 23rd Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Document 45.

  31. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., March 11, 1833, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.

  32. Maxmillian, Prince of Wied, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834, reprinted in Early Western Travels, ed. Rueben Gold Thwaites, 32 vols. (Cleveland, OH: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1906), 22:257.

  33. Ibid.

  34. Abstract of Licenses, January 16, 1834, 23rd Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Document 45. Receipt for goods on account with Hiram Rich, September 25, 1833, Chouteau-Maffit Collection, MHS.