| Among the first
at New Orleans issued commission from the
director-general of Louisiana to conduct the
business of trading furs, was Laclede, Maxan, and
Company in 1762. In a winter tour of the
Mississippi during 1763 and early 1764, Auguste
and Pierre Chouteau established a fur-trading
post at the point which would become known as St.
Louis. The
centre of business for the traders, St. Louis was
inhabited by those who would make their fortune
and mark in history. To enlighten one of the
amount of money to be made, the annual receipts
at St. Louis for the last decade of the
eighteenth century exceeded $200,000 - consisting
in approximately 40,000 pounds of beaver; 8000
otter; 5000 bear; 150,000 deer; and a few hundred
buffalo robes. Despite these numbers, fur trading
would not sustain itself, but would indeed give
way ... but until that time, these men do their
best to monopolize the St. Louis trade.
Manuel Lisa, an
ambitious Creole merchant who had come to St.
Louis from New Orleans in 1790, organized an
expedition in the spring of 1807. The outfit,
consisting of fifty or sixty men, ascended the
Missouri River and built Fort Raymond, at the confluence of the
Yellowstone and Big Horn Rivers. Working the
small tributaries of the Yellowstone, Big Horn,
Powder and Tongue rivers, they were very
successful in aquiring a good amount of furs and
returned to St. Louis with intentions of
returning with a larger party.
Having convinced
most of the wealthy St. Louis merchants of the
profits to be had there, Lisa formed the St.
Louis Missouri Fur Company in the winter of
1808-1809. His first co-partners included Pierre
Choteau Sr., and Auguste Choteau, Jr., and Pierre
Menard, Benjamin Wilkinson, Reuben Lewis, William
Clark, Sylvestre Labbadie of St. Louis; William
Morrison of the town of Kaskaskia in the
Territory of Indiana; Andrew Henry of Louisiana;
and also Dennis Fitzhugh of Louisville Kentucky
were included in the Articles of Association.
This document clearly stated the partnership was
"for the purposes of trading and hunting up
the river Missouri and to the head waters thereof
or at such other place or places as a majority of
the subscribing co-partners may elect,
viz:."
One of their first
expeditions was a contract with Governor
Meriwether Lewis for $7,000 to return a Mandan
Indian, Big White, to his people. He had been
persuaded by Lewis and Clark during their
expedition to leave his village and go east to
visit with President Jefferson; and it was the
St. Louis Missouri Fur company who had been given
the private expedition to return him in the
spring of 1809. This expedition was stated in
Article 10: "The members of this association
having contracted with his Excellency governor
Lewis to convey the chief of the Mandan Indians
now at St. Louis to his nation: It is hereby
agreed that Pierre Chouteau senior shall have the
command and complete control of this present
expedition: to have the full direction of the
march; to have the command of such officers as
may be appointed under him; to point out their
duties and give each officer his command
agreeably to rank--so far as the company is bound
by the aforesaid contract with the Executive to
observe Military Discipline."
Their second
expedition consisted of thirteen rivercraft and
included Meriwether's brother Reuben and Andrew
Henry who built what was often known as Fort
Mandan which was a few miles upstream from the
Mandan and Hidatsa villages on the Knife River.
Thereafter the company began to establish forts
along the Missouri and Nebraska and was trading
successfully with the Sioux, Ricaras, Mandans,
and Blackfoot. William Clark had been appointed
agent of the company and was to reside at the
Town of Saint Louis. He was to "receive all
Peltries, furs, monies or other property sent or
delivered to him by the Company or any member
thereof; and the same to keep & preserve in
the best manner he can for the interest of the
company, untill the same shall be divided, and
for the preservation and keeping of said
Peltries, furs or other property of the company
the said agent shall be paid and allowed all
necessary expenditures made by him."
The Missouri Fur
Company had also penetrated into the Rocky
Mountains and in 1808 Henry had built a fort on
the branch of the Lewis River, but due to hostile
natives and the difficulty of bringing provisions
to the fort, he abandoned it in 1810. The War of
1812 also created difficulties and they were
forced out of the dangerous Dakota border
country, and eventually the partnership with the
original members was dissolved in 1812. They
re-organized in 1819, the company at this time
including Lisa, Thomas Hempstead, Andrew Woods,
Joseph Perkins, Joshua Pilcher, Moses B. Carson,
and John B. Zenoni.
While Lisa and his
wife returned to Fort Lisa at Council Bluffs,
Joshua moved from camp to camp trading with the
Indians. Crossing during the bitter winter
through Nebraska to visit the Omaha Indians,
Joshua traded with the Indians and returned to
Fort Lisa near the Christmas season, only to find
Lisa in poor health. After the river thawed, Lisa
left for St. Louis in April while Joshua remained
at Council Bluffs where he became friends with
John Dougherty, who was an Indian interpreter.
In failing health,
Lisa left St. Louis hoping to find healing health
at the mineral springs, but died on the 12th of
August, 1820. His will empowered his executors to
mortgage his St. Louis property to secure a debt
for goods purchased from Messrs Stone Bostwick
& Co for the Missouri Fur Company indicating
that Lisa had hope that the company would prevail
despite many of the set backs they had sustained.
The partners
immediately drew up another agreement amongst
themselves which was to begin on the 20th of
September. While Joshua went out Council Bluffs
to oversee things there, Thomas Hempstead
remained in St. Louis to serve as business
manager. The fur trade's market remained
unstable, two of the company's post had been
robbed by an Arikara war party, and their debts
continued to pile up. Still Hempstead and Pilcher
continued on, and in the summer of 1822 the
company (under Joshua's orders) penetrated Crow
country and built Fort Benton on the Yellowstone
where they commenced trading with the Crows.
Competition with
the French Fur Company (Berhtold, Chouteau,
Pratte) which dominated the Indian trade in
Missouri increased. Former partner Andrew Henry
and his partner William Henry Ashley were also
putting pressure on the Missouri Fur Company,
competing with Hempstead for supplies, boats, and
men. Not to mention that instead of obtaining the
pelts from the Indians, Henry and Ashley were
hiring men as free trappers who would set their
own beaver traps. Still, despite the growing
competition, The Missouri Fur Company (now
including William H. Vanderburgh, Moses Carson,
Lucien Fontenelle, Andrew Drips) had sent out
nearly three hundred traders that year and
accumulated approximately $42,000 in furs.
On May 31, 1823, a
large Blackfoot war party ambushed Pilcher's men.
Seven men were killed (including Robert Jones and
Michael Immell), four were wounded, and their
traps, pack horses and pelts were stolen - a
financial loss estimated to be a staggering sum
between $15,000 and $16,000. Joshua blamed the
British for the attack and was forced to pull his
men back from the Northwest. The loss would not
be recouped. Their credit and reputation ruined,
they never returned to the headwaters of the
Missouri and by spring of 1824 the Missouri Fur
Company was bankrupt.
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