The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West

by Robert J. Willoughby

  Joseph III made full use of his younger brothers to keep operations at various sites going. Family connections proved strong, and after some bad choices for engagés, he could trust few others. In September 1808, Joseph hired his brother Francois Robidoux to spend the winter on the Missouri River as a hivernant or wintering clerk. The document does not tell us where, but likely they stayed at the post near the Platte.30 While the Blacksnake Hills are indelibly linked to Joseph Robidoux because of his later operation there, and the eventual founding of St. Joseph, Missouri, by him on that site, no permanent base of his own can be identified there at the time. Others did, temporarily at least, do business at the Blacksnake Hills. A notice in the St. Louis newspaper, the Missouri Gazette, clearly identified the site. “Take Notice. The partnership of McCullen and Crooks is this day disabled by mutual consent. All persons indebted to said firm are requested to make immediate payments—and those who bring claims on the same will present them to Ramsay Crooks who is fully authorized to settle all the affairs of said partnership. Signed Robert McCullen and Ramsay Crooks, Blacksnake Hills, River Missouri 18th Feb. 1809.”31

  During 1807, in response to issues growing out of the Napoleonic Wars, President Jefferson asked Congress to pass the Embargo Act, hoping to force Britain and other warring nations in Europe to amend their ways by withholding trade and closing down American ports. That included New Orleans, through which most of the commerce of St. Louis passed. The economic impact sent the nation into a depression and damaged the already financially perilous situation of many of the trade families. Debts mounted, and prices for furs fell. Joseph II and his wife, Catherine, sold some property in St. Charles to Charles Tayon, possibly to raise some capital.32 The impact of the Embargo Act on British traders proved negligible.33

  After 1807 the downturn of Joseph II accelerated as his health deteriorated and he battled progressive blindness, which appeared to be hereditary, possibly retinitis or cataracts. On March 17, 1809, the Robidouxs' father died and Joseph III assumed, to a formal degree, the lead in operation of the family businesses, already clearly on his shoulders. Auguste Chouteau had been designated the executor of the father's property and he, along with witnesses Charles Sanguinet, with whom Joseph II had frequently partnered, and Francois Valois made an inventory on March 17, 1809.34 It included some house slaves, a woman named Felecite, who had a child in arms, a daughter eight years old, and another girl age six, described as une autre petite negrette. It was a common request for Auguste Chouteau, as the leading citizen of the city, to be called upon to execute wills and estates of other French families.35

  Large debts awaited to be paid, and the creditors wasted no time asking for their money. Within two months of the passing of Joseph II, Chouteau had rented out some of his property. An advertisement in the Missouri Gazette announced that “Doctor Farrar had taken up public practice in the home on Second Street of Mr. Robidoux, ci devant a Mr. Sarpi. May 16, 1809.”36 From July 1809, an account sheet from Francois Droven listed the Robidouxs as owing for thirty-three gallons of whiskey. That would have been an extraordinary amount for personal use, even for their father's wake, so it raises the question again as to whether or not it was being used in the Indian trade against the government's edict.37

  On August 2, 1809, the St. Louis newspaper carried an announcement that the firm of Cavelier & Petit (Son) had filed in the Court of Common Pleas, St. Louis district, July term 1809, a petition to foreclose on a mortgage. Cavelier & Petit of New Orleans had long been one of the main suppliers of trade goods and a creditor of Joseph Robidoux II. The account balance reported to Chouteau in May 1809 totaled $11,445.32. The firm claimed rights above all other creditors because they held the first mortgage on Robidoux's property.38 They named as the defendants, “Catherine Rolet, widow of Joseph Robidoux, deceased, Joseph, Francois, Isadore, Michel, Louis, Pelagie and Eulalie, children and heirs of the deceased, and Auguste Chouteau, executor and representative of the said Robidoux, deceased.” For some reason, Antoine was not listed. “The said defendants having failed to appear and answer the motion of Edward Hempstead, Esq. attorney for the petitioners, they were ordered to appear at the November session of the court. Signed, Thomas Riddick, clerk of the Court.”39

  In October, Cavelier & Petit corresponded directly with Auguste Chouteau and received reassurances that their money was on the way. “We have received your letter of 12 July last by which we are very flattered to learn that after inquiring into the affairs of the late Robidoux you are of the opinion that our debt is secure. We very much desire that the sale of his goods, which you foretell, will take place in accord with our wishes.” Despite the outward appearance of not caring about the dead man's family financial position, the New Orleans supply firm had good reason to press for the collection of Robidoux's debt. Not only did Robidoux owe them payment, but identified in the same letter were one of Chouteau's brothers and several others, Messrs. Fromentin, Fagot, Bellonne, Dukeibus, and Bouitre, all traders who had been extended credit and not paid. Of interest, Cavalier identified the reach of the New Orleans–based business, complaining of problems marketing his Cuban sugar, and dealings in Vera Cruz, Mexico, interrupted by “the Spanish Revolution.” Across the board, Cavelier lamented, “Business is still in the greatest stagnation and as long as the European ports are forbidden us we cannot hope for a favorable change. If one of them functions we will be mindful to notify you although we are sure you will know it as soon as we, which will enable us to act according to the circumstances.” The situation they referred to was the disastrous embargo of 1807 that wrecked American trade. But, the Embargo Act was in the process of being lifted as Cavelier and Chouteau corresponded.40

  By January, Hempstead got his foreclosure case heard and ran a listing for the sale of the mortgaged property. “On the 4th Monday of February next, at 11 of the clock in the forenoon, will be sold, at public venue, the House, Store, Bake House, and Lot with the other buildings there on, situated on Main Street in the town of St. Louis, lately occupied by Joseph Robidoux, dec'd, and one of the best stands in the western country for a store or tavern. Also a lot with a Horse Mill thereon, situated in Second Street in the town of St. Louis adjoining the lot of Eugene Alvarez: Also several Negro Slaves, consisting of women and young Girls. Sale to be on the premises (the Widow's right of dower, if any is adjudged her, not to be sold.)”41

  In March, Auguste Chouteau continued the liquidation of the father's estate, advertising in the paper, “a tract of land situated in the Illinois Territory being one arpent wide, a tract of land one league square situated on the Mississippi above the River des Moens” (site of the poorly run Des Moines trading post). Further the ad identified, “about 20 miles from St. Louis, granted by the Spanish government, a tract of land situated at barrier Denoyer near St. Louis having 4 arpents wide and 40 in depth.” An arpent measured approximately 180 French feet, and a league about three miles. Also for sale, “some bushels of Wheat, Lead in bars, and other articles to tedious to mention.” The final items listed in the ad were “beaver, otter, rackoon, bearskins, muskrat and deer skins, as also noted and sundry accounts to be sold at the same time.”42

  Even the widowed mother of the boys had to deal with Auguste. Catherine Robidoux bought a stone house from the estate (her husband had purchased the property in 1806) for $1,425 in March 1810, located on the south half of Block 5 in St. Louis, at the corner of Main and Myrtle.43 In late November 1810, needing money from the still-unsettled estate of his father, Francois Robidoux wrote the family benefactor, Auguste Chouteau, asking for sixty piastres (dollars) to pay some debts. Apparently his older brother Joseph had already requested the money, owed to a Mr. Garnier. Auguste Chouteau as the executor of Joseph Senior's estate controlled the purse strings tightly as far as what the sons got. He paid debts owned by the father first, and his name even appeared on the tax receipt for the family property, along with that of Francois. In December 1810 Francois sued Auguste Chouteau for some share of the estate and got a
favorable ruling from the judge.44

  Catherine remarried in 1812, to Victor Lagoterie, and sold the stone house, for $2,500 to her eldest son, Joseph, in April 1812, according to the Recorder of Deeds in St. Louis. When Joseph III remarried remains something of a question. We know he did marry his second wife, Angelique Vaudry, the daughter of Antoine and Agnes Vaudry of Vincennes, Indiana, where they were respected and highly educated members of that community. According to an entry in the Recorder of Deeds book in St. Louis, Joseph and Angelique sold some property in March 1813 to a Thomas Riddick, indicating the union had taken place by then. The problem is that the date is more than a year prior to the recording of their wedding in August 1814. Possibly Joseph's second marriage was performed twice, the first a civil service, in 1813, the second time with benefit of clergy, on August 13, 1814, according to St. Louis church records. The birth of their first children took place in August 1814, so there may have been some issue about legitimacy in the eyes of the church.45

  Over the next decades, the commuting husband and wife produced six sons and a daughter who lived to adulthood; beginning with twins, Julius Cesar (frequently spelled Jules) and Messanie in August 1814 (Messanie did not survive infancy); a son named Joseph, in December 1815, who also did not survive infancy; Faraon in May 1816; Francois (Francis), February 1818; Felix, May 1820; Edmond, May 1825; Sylvanie, October 1827; and Charles, October 1831. All their children were conceived during his return trips to St. Louis, and all were born there. Whether or not he was present at all their births and christenings is not known, but there are church records that indicate all the children were baptized. While the family with Angelique was substantial by most men's standard, Joseph remained a frontier polygamist. No exact record indicates the number of métis children he sired during that same period, but the estimate of a dozen or more would not be beyond the realm of possibility. Did Angelique know about Joseph's frontier family? Again, that can only be supposed, but the practice of taking “country wives” was common knowledge in the fur-trading community. Did she, like so many Creole wives in St. Louis, look the other way? She kept the house in St. Louis, and it remained in the name of Joseph and Angelique until July 1839, when they sold it to Michel, his younger brother.46

  The United States and Great Britain went to war in May 1812, leaving some impact on the lands west of the Mississippi River. The British blockade stymied the import and export of both trade goods and furs. It slowed the exchange between St. Louis and New Orleans and St. Louis and the Great Lakes region, specifically trading posts and routes where merchants did a direct business with the British. Americans from across the west joined in the fight against the British, for any number of motives, not all linked in a way to patriotism. The fact that many westerners wanted Canada taken from the British, as a primary objective of the war, fed the patriotism of some, and at least two of the Robidoux brothers signed up to serve their new country. The names of Isadore and Anthony (Antoine) Robidoux appeared on the muster roll of the St. Louis Volunteer Artillerists, under the command of Captain Charles Lucas. There is no record of any combat with British forces in the immediate area of St. Louis, though militia units were called up to guard against attacks by Indians, either directly allied to or supplied by the British. The deployment of the unit did take Antoine and Isadore to the Illinois territory across the river.47

  On June 4, 1812, John Luttig, a clerk of the Missouri Fur Company, going up the river to attend to business with Manuel Lisa encountered one of the Robidoux brothers, probably Francois (prior to his enlistment), coming down the river in the vicinity of Fort Osage. Writing his journal in fractured English, he observed, “Thursday the 4th (June 1812) started after breakfast, about 9 A.M. met several pirogues coming from their winter quarters, Mess fr Robideau, La Jeuness & others. Louis Bijou embarked with us, as also two hunters embarked at fort Osage Greenwood & Laurison. Immel went back to the fort for his dog and on his return informed of the party going to Santa Fe he met this day at the fort.” The information in this brief snapshot is important for several reasons. The list of names also indicated a number of men working either for or with Robidoux and some important characters in the later history of the upper Missouri fur trade that were acquaintances of the Robidouxs, like Michael Immel. Francois had wintered over in the vicinity of the Platte confluence with the Missouri, either as a clerk for his brother Joseph or by then in the capacity of a partner. Of further interest, the comment about the party going to Santa Fe, likely a group led by Robert McKnight and James Baird, crossing into Spanish territory, raises some intriguing questions, since that area was completely off limits to Americans as far as anyone knew.48

  There could be no mistaking that Joseph III emerged, in the year or two after his father's death, not only as the head of the Robidoux family business operations but as a trader who could clearly go toe to toe with the other big names in the St. Louis fur trade. He would not allow his interests to be subordinated to the likes of Lisa or the Chouteaus, and Joseph clearly sought a private niche in the trade for himself and his younger brothers. He proved savvy enough to know he still had to deal with the likes of the Chouteaus to maintain access to lines of credit, and uninterrupted supplies of trade goods, but he had both the charm and when appropriate, the humility, to get what he needed and wanted. In the end, his family business came first and he did not hesitate to take on all comers to protect it. Joseph owed no real allegiance to any nation, state, or political entity. He could and did go outside the normal bounds of mainstream commerce, or use unconventional business practices to succeed, even if it meant technically bending or breaking the law, or stepping on some pretty important toes in the trader culture of St. Louis.

  In 1812, Joseph Robidoux III found himself in trouble, indicted for illegally trading with the British. As seen, the Robidouxs had a long history of trading with suppliers on the upper Great Lakes. The case involved trade goods brought from Mackinac Island. The judge noted, “Robidoux knows of a boat belonging to Mr. Julien of which landed at St. Louis in September 1812.” Then he wrote, “Joseph Robidoux brought to St. Louis one boat on September 1812 with a cargo value of $10,000—proceeding from the Island of Mackinac. Seized at, plea Not Guilty. Act of Congress 1st March 1809 for preventing Entercourse [sic].” Others named on the indictment included some of the most prominent of St. Louis traders, Pierre Chouteau, J. P. Cabanné, and Thomas Hempstead.49 In an earlier document, consisting of notes from the clerk of the federal court in St. Louis, Joseph Robidoux fingered Jean Pierre Cabanné and an associate Antoine Chenie as buying sugar from the British at Mackinac. The statements given by Robidoux against Cabanné resulted in a deep and permanent discomfiture of Cabanné for Robidoux, even after the two were put in a position of having to work together later at the Missouri River posts.50

  The fighting in court did not stop there. In October 1814, Joseph and Francois Robidoux, along with Henry Delaurier and Alexander Papin, were named as defendants in a suit filed by Auguste Chouteau, J. P. Cabanné, and Antoine Chenie, for breach of contract. In September 1813 the partnership of Delaurier, Papin, and the two Robidoux brothers took possession of an extensive stock of trade goods valued at over $6,000; and bound for the Maha Nation (Omaha Indians). The bill of lading filed in the court records ran five pages of a ledger book. An agent for Chouteau, Cabanné, and Chenie named Bazil Bissonnet delivered the goods up the Missouri River to the trading post called Fort de L'Oiseau Noir. One year later the debt remained outstanding and the exact status of the partnership in question. The fluid nature of brief partnerships for the Indian trade remains obvious. There is an indication in the court papers that Francois Delaurier, brother of Henry, should have been included in the list of defendants as primarily responsible for the debt. The Circuit Court in St. Louis issued a summons to appear, dated August 8, 1814, on the “fourth Monday of October next,” for the four defendants to respond to the complaint.51

  The Robidouxs, Papin, and Delaurier may or may not have had legitimate issues with
the goods as delivered. According to Bissonnet's sworn deposition, some shady business began almost immediately. Bissonnet, who declared he could not read or write, said Francois Robidoux and Papin began immediately to hand inspect the goods, weighing and measuring everything. They quickly accused Bissonnet, therefore Chouteau and company, of cheating them, the bundles missing yards of fabric, beads, and many blankets. Bissonnet stated that he expected to be paid for the goods upon delivery, but Delaurier told him they would “detain the payment.” Chouteau's agent then asked for a letter or signed invoice stating such so he could deliver it to his boss in St. Louis. “They showed me a paper but as I can neither read nor write I do not know what the contents of it might be.” Apparently Bissonnet did put his mark on an invoice that had been rewritten by Francois Robidoux, which he stated in his deposition, “through ignorance.” Further, according to the deposition, Joseph Robidoux told Bissonnet that he “would say he had been cheated by them [Chouteau] and that said Joseph Robidoux or his brother (Francois) would flog him.”52

  Bissonnet and the two men who accompanied him considered simply reloading the goods on the boat and taking them back to St. Louis as he compared the actions of the defendants, like the taking of “pillage and plunder.” Asked if there had been physical violence used against him Bissonnet answered “no.” But when asked the next question by Chouteau's lawyer, “were you afraid of them?” Bissonnet answered “yes,” no doubt in response to the verbal threat of a possible beating. The court awarded the plaintiffs, personally well acquainted with the defendants, damages of $7,000 for goods, wares, and merchandise. It also held the defendants in contempt for failure to appear and issued a summons dated April 13, 1815. Court records do not indicate how the case might have been settled, how much actually got paid to whom, but bad blood between the Robidouxs and Cabanné continued for decades afterward.53