The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West
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The Corps of Discovery did pass Robidoux's Le Serpent Noir when they poled and roped their way upstream during the summer of 1804. On July 7, 1804, they wrote: “In the morning the rapidity of the water obliged us to draw the boat along with ropes. At six and three quarter miles, we came to a sandbar, at a point opposite a fine rich prairie on the north, called St. Michael's. The prairies of this neighborhood have the appearance of distinct farms, divided by narrow strips of woodland, which follow the borders of the small runs leading to the river. Above this, about a mile is a cliff of yellow clay on the north.”13
The reference to the name “St. Michael's” in describing the prairie there has frequently been ascribed to the idea that Robidoux had named the area in honor of his little brother Michel, born in 1798. That cannot be true as the reference to the prairie is found on a table of distances and sites along the river dated 1797. Based on calculations of time and distance, the July 7, 1804, entry in the Lewis and Clark journals does describe the site of Joseph III's future city of St. Joseph. Some local history placed a trading post at the site at that early date, but as far as confirming any type of structure there, Lewis and Clark did not record seeing anything of that nature.14
Lewis and Clark were not the only American army officers commissioned to lead expeditions into Mr. Jefferson's vast new domain. On August 14, 1805, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike departed St. Louis, dispatched to find the source of the Mississippi River. Approximately one hundred miles above St. Louis he encountered a “young gentleman (Mr. Robedoux) by whom I sent a letter to St. Louis.”15 No first name given in the reference, leads to the conclusion twenty-two-year-old Joseph may have been that far up river, or maybe seventeen-year-old Francois. It is known that Joseph II had purchased interest in a post at the confluence of the Des Moines River, in May 1803, and possibly the young Robidoux had come from there.16
While Lewis, Clark, Pike, and the explorers rambled north and west during the period 1805–1807, the United States Government moved quickly to establish an administration for the Territory of Louisiana and to institute the factory system for trading with Indians, as well as taking over the licensing of traders. The factory system had been established in 1795 for the purpose of “creating harmony with the Indian Nations.” The government factories, funded by congressional appropriation, stocked good-quality trade merchandise to be exchanged for furs at a fair price. Idealistically, the factory system worked to draw the Indians closer to the government, but never had much public support because of the widespread desire of American businessmen to make more profits from their own direct trade with the Indians. Independent traders, licensed by the government, worked in direct competition with the factories. The process of licensing independent traders required the posting of a bond and agreement to obey the rules established by the Congress of the United States and administered by the War Department and its Indian agents. The granting of licenses, though still political to some extent, had much improved over the old Spanish system of doing business. While the Lewis and Clark expedition created tremendous excitement for the potential fur trade on the upper Missouri, ranging into the Rocky Mountains, the Robidouxs seemed initially content to stay in areas already known, with tribes along the lower Missouri, no higher than the Platte.
On August 28, 1805, Joseph Robidoux, Junior (III), was granted a license by General James Wilkinson, governor and superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory of Louisiana. The license stated Robidoux had “made application to trade with the Ottoe & Missouri Indians and had given bond according to Law for the observance of all such regulations and restrictions as now are or hereafter shall be made by Law for the government of trade and Intercourse with the Indian tribes.” The license further identified the Panis (Pania Luup as Lewis and Clark referred to them, or the more popular name, Pawnee) Indians as open to Robidoux, “to reside at their towns with one Batteau, 8 men and there to sale, barter or exchange with the individuals of the said nations all manner of goods, wares & merchandise, conforming to the laws and regulations aforesaid.” On the license, the next phrase was underlined, “but under those express conditions and restrictions that no ardent spirits of any species shall be sold to the said or any other Indians under any pretense whatever.” The penalty, spelled out, meant loss of license and trade goods. Wilkinson granted the license for one year from the date.17
The fact that the license had been made out to “Junior” would lead us to believe that Wilkinson issued it to the son, and not Joseph II. There exist no previous records to indicate Joseph II was ever referred to as junior, though technically he might be called that. However, since it required the posting of a bond, one might also assume that the license had been paid for by Joseph II, who would have had the money to do so. The statement in the license of the number of men and the number and type of conveyance is significant. A single license holder could not be expected to work a huge territory on his own, yet the government did not want a single holder flooding the region with men who may not be under his control, though supposedly working under the same license. Larger operations could be and were licensed with many more engagés, but that remained dependent on the amount of the posted bond and the available capital to purchase trade goods.
The Panis (Pawnee) occupied the lands in present-day Nebraska, south and west of the Platte River confluence with the Missouri. The Otoes and Missouri tribe lived further down the Missouri, on both sides of the river. Realistically the zone of trade permitted by his license extended as much as one hundred miles north to south, but he would have concentrated efforts at a central post or as an alternative, moving temporary base camps along the riverbank. As Robidoux took up the trade there, he established his main post very near the confluence of the Platte, south of the area known as Council Bluffs. Joseph employed some of his younger brothers, specifically Francois and maybe Isadore.
Governor Wilkinson learned quickly from Indians in the Missouri Territory that they were unhappy with the trade situation that existed under the Spanish and with treaty arrangements made previously with William Henry Harrison, in the Northwest Territory. The secretary of war, Henry Dearborn, instructed Wilkinson to quickly establish a government trading factory in the new territory. Wilkinson chose a site at Belle Fontaine, four miles above the Missouri's confluence with the Mississippi and construction began in the summer of 1805. Wilkinson's administration reflected the multitude of problems the addition of Louisiana had brought to the United States. Spanish land claims, Indian land cessions, pushing tribes from the Northwest Territory into Louisiana, the potential for corruption, trouble with British traders, all visited the governor. Wilkinson's own son took an expedition to build a fort near the mouth of the Platte River, but abandoned it after some Indian hostility. Later, critics claimed that Wilkinson had actually sent a party up the river to trade, using public boats to transport the merchandise of various friends.18
In August 1806, Joseph Robidoux, without Junior added, renewed the 1805 license and received new conditions for trade on the Missouri River with the Panis, Mahas, and Otoe Indians at their towns on the river. The Mahas were the Omaha Indians, and their inclusion pushed the range of Robidoux's trade north of the Platte another twenty miles. The license limited him to one canoe, one bateau, six men, and one interpreter. Joseph Browne, territorial secretary, and acting in Wilkinson's absence, issued the new license. In the short span of two years, Wilkinson had proved totally incompetent to manage the huge new territory, despite having been befriended by the Chouteaus and other merchant families who wrote letters of support on his behalf to President Jefferson. He failed to undertake legal reforms or even call the territorial legislature, and he alienated the commandant of the St. Louis garrison, Samuel Hammond. Embarrassed by Wilkinson's actions, and amid rumors of his duplicity in a conspiracy with Aaron Burr to seize some western lands, President Jefferson had Secretary of War Dearborn transfer Wilkinson to the military command in lower Louisiana, before replacing him as the territorial governor in 1807 with Mer
iwether Lewis.19
On the morning of September 16, 1806, while pushing up the Missouri with the newly issued license, one of the Brothers Robidoux ran into the two giants of the West, Messrs. Lewis and Clark, on their way home from their epic expedition to the Pacific. The great explorers encountered more than the Robidouxs heading up the river as they made their descent. While they were yet to complete their travels back to St. Louis, they met nearly a dozen trading parties headed the opposite direction. Some of these parties even absorbed members of their own Corps of Discovery, like John Colter, who saw no point going all the way back to civilization. Colter had parted company on August 15, 1806, to join “some trappers who offered to become shearers [sic] with him and furnish traps, &c.”20
In the Lewis and Clark Journals they recorded the meeting with Robidoux, with a lot of misspelling: “at 10 A. M. we met a large trading perogue bound for the panias we continued but a Short time with them. At 11 A. M. we met young Mr. Bobidoux [Robidoux] with a large boat of six ores and 2 canoes, the license of this young man was to trade with the Panias mahars and ottoes reather an extroardanary a license for so young a man and without the Seal of the territory annexed, as Genl. Wilkinsons Signeture was not to this instrument we were somewhat doubtfull of it. Mr. Browns Signature we were not acquainted with without the Teritorial Seal. We made some enquireys of this young man and cautioned him against prosueing the Steps of his brother in attempting to degrade the American Character in the eyes of the Indians.”21
The journal did not identify which of the Brothers Robidoux led the expedition. The fact that they identified him as “young,” and the reference to “his brother,” may indicate that either Francois, Isadore, or Antoine manned the boat and the elder brother Joseph stood accused of the attempted degradation. It is interesting and obvious that Lewis and Clark, who made no record of a previous firsthand encounter with any Robidoux, had apparently heard from other traders that one of the brothers had done something derogatory toward the government's standing with the Indians. We can suppose that meant unfavorable remarks about the new United States Government of the territory, or possibly cheating the Indians, or even worse, providing them with liquor. Were other traders spreading lies to attack the competition or were the remarks justified? We shall never know. Meriwether Lewis took a dislike to the Robidouxs, who, according to Lewis's observations of Joseph's trade with the Ottoes and Missouris, was “guilty of the most flagrant breaches” of all the crimes mentioned above. Lewis's animosity toward the Robidouxs endured through the rest of his short life. Nevertheless, William Clark as the future superintendent of Indian Affairs for the whole Louisiana Territory did issue the Robidouxs a number of trade licenses and passports.22
In 1806, at the age of twenty-three, Joseph Robidoux III married Eugenie Delille (Delisle), daughter of a wealthy St. Louis merchant. Though he had already taken one or more Indian wives in the frontier sense, it was important for his status in the St. Louis community to marry a woman of French Creole stock. They had one son, Joseph E., born late in 1806, as well as a daughter named Messanie, who did not survive infancy. For a while, they lived with Eugenie's relatives. In response to a question at the 1856 deposition another date and event became clear, that being, when did Joseph III marry? Robidoux answered, “When I lived there in 1806 or 1807, I was married here in St. Louis. I lived with Brazeau after I was married, my wife lived there when I was away on business, and when I came back. I would go there and stay two or three months at a time.” Possibly Joseph did not have enough money of his own to buy a proper house, or Eugenie simply wanted the comfort and safety of living with someone she knew in his extended absences. The pattern of marriage to an Indian trader meant long absences, with spotty communications, frequently living with friends or in-laws, with periods of reunion lasting a few weeks or months, to repeat the cycle each year or trading season. The financial cashing in that came with each return to St. Louis and civilization paid for the wife and children to live, and if not so, arrangements were made with suppliers and creditors to keep the trader's family in a fashion until he returned with a new cache of furs. His comments regarding his time away from home are also significant in that they indicate that by 1807 he probably had some kind of permanent base on the Missouri in the vicinity of the Platte River near the Omaha or Panis Indians. That outpost, for a time called Fort Robidoux, and later to change hands as investors and company interests came and went, may have predated or at least been contemporary with a nearby post established by Manuel Lisa. Eugenie died four years after their marriage, leaving Joseph III a widower with a small boy.23
By 1806, eighteen-year-old Francois became clearly active in the Indian trade. Besides the earlier reference to his possible encounter with Lewis and Clark in September of that year, he can be found working, at least briefly, for the Chouteaus. They were the preeminent family in St. Louis and did employ many engagés from other French families they knew. Like older brother Joseph, he benefited from his father's business connections and the experience of the family operations in St. Louis. His providing a service for the Chouteaus would have been completely natural, especially if requested through his father. He served as the go-between to deliver goods from Mr. Fras. Perrin, for whom Pierre Chouteau had signed surety, and J. B. Deroin, who had won a judgment against them. “Please deliver to Mr. Francois Robidoux the bearer of this, the quantity of one thousand eighty pounds of furs, or their value in money, which sum is the amount of the judgment in favor of J. B. Deroin. Signed, L. Darneille, Lawyer.” On the bottom of the same note, Chouteau asked if he could pay the sum in deerskins and the lawyer agreed.24 Typical of the ongoing family connectivity of St. Louis, in 1807, Francois married Therese Bienvenu Delisle, twin sister of Joseph's wife, Eugenie, and began a family life that eventually produced ten children between 1809 and 1831.
While the lower Missouri Indian trade had been established under the Spanish regime, the upper Missouri, opened with Lewis and Clark and promoted by their reports, presented a great allure to many of the St. Louis merchants, no doubt including the Robidoux clan. Manuel Lisa, the Spaniard who had come to St. Louis in 1800 and, as seen, jumped into the politics of that town early on, got an ambitious start ahead of the rest by pushing beyond the lower Missouri in the spring of 1807 and establishing a base high up river among the Mandans. Lisa partnered with William Morrison and Pierre Menard and picked up two important lieutenants on the way up river, George Drouillard and John Colter, both veterans of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Pushing past the Mandans, Lisa reached the Yellowstone and the confluence of the Big Horn River where he established the post called Fort Manuel (also called Raymond), and true to his ambition he also established bases among the Crow and the Sioux. The 1807 ascent had not gone without problems, as the Arikaras and Mandans exhibited some hostility toward white traders, even stopping the expedition of Nathaniel Pryor and the accompanying traders of Auguste P. Chouteau, who tried to follow Lisa to the upper Missouri.25
In 1809 Lisa organized a company, the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, with Pierre Chouteau Sr. (1758–1849) and his son Auguste Pierre Chouteau (1786–1839) as principal partners, and including William Clark, Ruben Lewis (brother of Meriwether), and Andrew Henry. Operations on the upper Missouri proved initially impressive, with a large number of men taking a major cache of furs. But trouble with the Blackfeet, initiated by a number of personal affronts and support of the traditional enemies, the Crow, with maybe some British influence, eventually damaged the profit margins and made working the upper Missouri difficult. As partnerships go, the business model of the American fur trade saw a constant entrance and exit of men willing to invest or risk, so membership remained quite fluid. There is no indication that Joseph III directly invested in the upper Missouri ventures. Lisa stayed active on the upper Missouri, working with the Mandans, reorganized the firm in early 1812, and then struggled to stay in business after the start of the War of 1812.26
Joseph had established bases of operation on the lower
Missouri, but he continued searching for new places to open trading business. He traveled the Mississippi Valley from New Orleans to the shores of Lake Michigan. Suppliers and creditors were always paramount among the concerns of a young trader getting started, and Joseph III relied on contacts established through his father. On July 30, 1808, Joseph Robidoux took command of a barge bound from Michilimackinac on the strait between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, headed for the Illinois River, in the United States. The manifest for sixty-two items listed such things as iron works, kettles, pepper, pork, tea, gun powder, sugar, snuff, shot, two cases of guns, traps, frying pans, flour, corn, and baked goods. The manifest stated the items were solely for the Indian trade. Further, the consignment was purchased from the Michilimackinac Company, identified as being composed of British subjects.27 Though Joseph Robidoux III took charge of the transport and disposition of the trade goods, the cost of the merchandise had been charged by his father to the amount of over ten thousand dollars, which remained payable until the settlement of his estate.28
A base had been established on the Des Moines River near the confluence with the Mississippi. That trading post did not do well. Joseph III entrusted the operation to engagés while he spent the winter in St. Louis. There may have been issues with Eugenie's health or just the necessity of spending time on other family matters. While at home he got a letter from an acquaintance named John P. Gates, who had been to the post two hundred miles above St. Louis. “I want to give you the news of your outfit with Pierre Blondeau at the Rapid des Moins. He has everything bad and has wasted what you advanced him. No other news except that Mr. Dubuc [Dubuque] and the rest are very sick at Rapid des Moin in the house of Julien.”29