The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West

by Robert J. Willoughby

  During the summer of 1823, Joseph Robidoux working at the Bluffs saw and heard first hand of events taking place farther up the Missouri River that left a profound impact on the fur trade of the West. Though there is no record of the Brothers Robidoux participating, the repercussions of the event affected their own forward-looking plans and solidified their decision to look southwest. In early May William H. Ashley passed Fort Atkinson and the Bluffs posts on his way up the Missouri to its confluence with the Yellowstone, where a base had been established by his partner, Major Henry. In that virgin trapping country, Ashley and Henry hoped to corner a good part of the intermountain beaver trade, and their first year in 1822 had been successful.39

  On May 30, 1823, Ashley's keelboats stopped at the towns of the Arikara Indians near the Grand River, on the border of the present-day Dakotas. The Arikara ambushed Ashley's party, killing or wounding over half of his men and sending the rest retreating down stream. At the same time, both Major Henry's party and Jones and Immell of the Missouri Fur Company suffered attacks from the Blackfeet. Jones and Immell were killed, forcing Joshua Pilcher to comment his company's position on the upper Missouri had been terminally damaged. As Pilcher stated in a letter to Ben O'Fallon, “the flower of my business is gone. My mountaineers have been defeated, and the Chiefs of the party both slain.” Pilcher also made it clear in the same letter what he expected from Leavenworth. “If protection to the commerce of the Missouri be the object of our government, this would seem to be the accepted time; a decisive blow is indispensable.” Colonel Henry Leavenworth dispatched troops from Fort Atkinson to punish the Arikara. Men from both the Missouri and Ashley-Henry companies and Sioux Indians joined Leavenworth. They reached the Arikara towns on August 9, but no agreement as to the intent of the principals had been clarified. Leavenworth wanted to chastise the Indians, but only to the point of correcting them. The trappers wanted the tribe destroyed, and the Sioux simply wanted to plunder an old tribal foe. Leavenworth got his way, and after a single day of long-range combat—Leavenworth's artillery against the picketed towns, the Arikara escaped with a treaty that promised only free passage to whites and peace from the government. The army had no intent or means of dealing with the Blackfeet and other hostile tribes farther up the Missouri, and Ashley had to find an alternative.40

  During the summer of 1823, amid the turmoil of the Arikara War, Joseph Robidoux had a special visitor pass through his post at Council Bluffs. Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wurttemberg, the young prince of one of several dozen small German states at that time, had become fascinated with the wilds of America and undertaken a tour of the West. The duke had made contacts in St. Louis with the Chouteaus, who Robidoux worked for, and arrangements had been made to receive him upon his arrival. Wurttemberg kept a diary of his travels and recorded his meeting with the eldest Robidoux brother. “The trading post of the Otoes is situated among the hills on the slope close to the river. The house of the French Company, to which they apply the name fort, is situated near a small creek, whose steep banks enclose it almost like a wall. The house is rather firmly set together and has a chimney of masonry. The agent of the French Company, Mr. Robidoux, having been informed of my coming, received me with much politeness, and had a room in readiness for me.” Wurttemberg reported a large number of Iowa Indians camped near the post. He noted in his diary how similar the Iowa Indians were to the Otoes and the Missouri tribes, that they frequently lived in the same villages, and commented on the efforts of Major O'Fallon to unite them.41

  The duke further described the site of Robidoux's post in relation to Fort Atkinson. “I decided to visit the military post at the Council Bluffs, which is two geographic miles farther up stream. In the absence of the commanding officer, who was on an expedition against the Arikaras, I contemplated a visit with my earlier acquaintance, the Indian agent, Mr. O'Fallon.” Wurttemberg described the area from horseback, seeing it much as Robidoux would have. “I now saw the Council Bluffs, one of the most picturesque points along the often all too monotonous banks of the great river. The good looking white washed buildings of the fort could be seen at a considerable distance from almost every direction. For me it was a genuine pleasure to see the dwellings of civilized men, indeed a small town again, after months of separation in the wilderness.”42

  Having been made aware of the troubles Ashley had encountered up river with the Arikara, the duke decided to proceed overland from Fort Atkinson. “With much difficulty Mr. Robidoux procured a couple of usable horses for me. These and a couple of mules seemed sufficient for a journey of several hundred miles over the prairie. Mr. Robidoux engaged two men to accompany me. One was a man named Rodger, commonly called Bell. The other was a half-breed named Monbrun, also called Le Malice, an experienced hunter, a sinister fellow of genuine Indian nature, but courageous and faithful.” The duke noted that while Joseph Robidoux was present at the post when he arrived, he was not there when he returned a few weeks later. “I did not find Mr. Robidoux present. I did meet Mr. Cabanne, one of the members of the French Company, who is now a leading member of the American Fur Company. I had previously met Mr. Cabanne, a native Frenchman in St. Louis.” Oddly, the duke and Robidoux would meet again almost thirty years later when the duke made a return trip to the American West and the two encountered each other on the great wagon road leading to Oregon and California.43

  The Indian agent Major Benjamin O'Fallon had been in conversations with representatives of the new government of Mexico for some time, discussing mutual Indian problems, as reported in the western newspapers.

  Some time last year [1823] Maj. O'Fallon, United States agent for the Upper Missouri having received several verbal applications from the commandant at Santa Fe, desiring his interference to restrain the Panis and other Indian residing within our territory from committing depredations on that Province, was induced to write and advise, that commissioners should be appointed on the part of the constituted authorities at Santa Fe, to meet those tribes at Council Bluffs, and agree upon the terms of a permanent peace, kindly offering his mediation to effect it. It will be seen that Major O'Fallon, in this matter, will only act as the friend of both parties, and in prevailing on the Indians to make a peace, will make manifest the influence of our government over those tribes, and establish more firmly the favorable impressions already made on our Mexican neighbors.

  O'Fallon sent an American flag for Mexican commissioners to travel under, thinking it, “their surest protection through the tribes in the neighborhood of our troops.”44

  The commandant of Santa Fe, Bartholomu Baca, responded in a letter to O'Fallon,

  You may rest satisfied of my sincerity and respect, and as a proof I beg to call your attention to the steps which I have taken to realize a part of your very valuable offers. Soon after I had received your letter, in conformity with existing regulations, I consulted the supreme government on the measures to be taken. The consequence was, that the superior authority has said that no inconvenience can result form naming, on the part of this province two commissioners, who shall treat with you concerning the well being of this country, and shall discuss at the same the propositions which you have made, in order that the national harmony so much wished for by the highest authority, should be well established. The two commissioners will leave this capital in the month of May.

  A rather amazing bit of early international diplomacy is represented there, with an American Indian agent mediating an agreement between a foreign nation and American Indian tribes.45

  Following the disaster of 1823, Ashley's new business model avoided the dangerous river passages poised by the Arikara and other tribes and dispatched his hunters overland, under the command of able captains like Jedediah Strong Smith. Joseph Robidoux must have watched with a great deal of interest, for all the reports from the Rocky Mountain reconnaissance were stating the enormous potential there, be they from the borders with Mexico all the way to the border with Canada. Robidoux saw that the fur trade on the lower Missouri had rea
ched its zenith, as the tribes along the river were beginning to depend as much on government handouts and credits as they were on their own ability to hunt. Top-grade beaver pelts could be found only in the mountains, and while deer, muskrat, raccoon, and even the lowly possum skins were marketable, it took more of them to turn a reasonable profit. Never one to pass the opportunity to make profits, the time to commit to a mountain expedition had arrived. And Joseph may very well have been in a tight financial position in early 1823, for in a public notice published in the Missouri Republican, he and his wife, Angelique, are named as defendants in a petition filed in Missouri District Court to foreclose on a mortgage involving property in St. Louis.46

  The American rush into the mountains that began in earnest shortly after Mexico gained independence from Spain accelerated. Americans were keen to open trade of any kind, and the potential for a lucrative fur trade promised great returns. New Mexico laid out a welcome mat in the form of a provincial assembly vote to admit American arrivals, with a status equal to its own citizens.47 Joseph knew that every day the competition expanded. He could read the papers, like the Missouri Intelligencer, which announced in May 1823 that

  A company, consisting of about thirty individuals, left this country during the last week, on a commercial adventure to Santa Fe. They will proceed to Fort Osage from whence they will take a direct course to the place of their destination. Each of them is provided with one or two pack horses, and takes on an average about two hundred dollars worth of goods. We are gratified to learn that they have selected Col. Cooper, one of our most respectable citizens, (who visited the place last summer,) to command them. His knowledge of the route, and his experience in Indian warfare admirably qualify him for the task, and readers know him a very valuable acquisition to the company. The whole party is well armed, and will no doubt be able to resist successfully an attack from any of the wandering tribes of savages which it may encounter on the way. We wish the greatest success to so worthy a spirit of liberal enterprise.48

  CHAPTER 4

  Into the Mountains

  On the Missouri River, the trade practiced by Joseph, his brothers, and the company he worked for remained very much as it had been for the two previous decades. Indians harvested the furs and pelts, brought them into the trading posts for the most part, exchanged them for merchandise, and then returned to their villages until they acquired enough skins to make it worth their while to trek to the post again. If they did not have enough skins, then they might come to the posts and ask for merchandise on credit. On rare occasion they dealt with government agents, sutlers, or free trappers. For the Robidouxs, the decision to move into the mountains of the Southwest added new dimensions to the trade and new challenges. By going into Mexico the trade with non-Indian urban dwellers, in Santa Fe, Taos, and other Mexican settlements, meant an entirely different line of merchandise than that traded to the Indians. The medium of exchange took the form of species, hard silver, or livestock, as well as locally produced crafts.

  The territory of Mexico beyond the towns belonged to the Indians. The Utes dominated the intermountain region from northern New Mexico to the valley of the Snake River in present-day Idaho. Under the Spanish administration there had been trade agreements that kept the Utes from raiding, but after Mexican independence that relationship came into question. One thing was clear; the Utes knew who the Americans were and wanted to trade with them. One Ute chief named Lechat reportedly said, “You are Americans, we are told, and you have come from your country afar off to trade with the Spaniards. We want your trade. Come to our country with your goods. Cone and trade with the Utahs. We have horses, mules, and sheep, more than we want. We heard that you wanted beaver skins. The beavers in our country are eating up our corn. All our rivers are full of them. Come over among us and you shall have as many beaver skins as you want.”1

  That aspect of the trade might at first seem similar to the Missouri River region but for the fact that the distance between the towns and the tribes that produced the greatest fur output prohibited any kind of regular exchange. To get the pelts from the intermountain Indians, it became evident that the traders had to go out to them, as the operations of the British Hudson's Bay Company clearly demonstrated. However, that quickly opened opportunities for the brothers to place in the field their own trapping brigades, composed of their own engagés, and directly supply the growing number of independent trappers flooding into the area. Trade opportunities no longer remained confined to the trading post, waiting for the Indians to come in. They assumed the role of retail shopkeeper, wholesaler, middleman, field manager, transporter, supplier, trailblazer, and townsmen. Each of the brothers retained their French-American identity, yet slipped comfortably into the language and culture of Mexico because there lay the new opportunity for wealth.

  On November 8, 1823, James Kennerly replaced John O'Fallon as the sutler at Fort Atkinson. He kept a diary, which provides some insight into what some of the Brothers Robidoux were up to. He had come to St. Louis in 1813 from Kentucky, and gone into business briefly with O'Fallon in “pickled meat” processing. He was also the brother-in-law of William Clark, the great explorer and superintendent of Indian trade, who gave him the job of forwarding agent for the government's factory system. When the factory system closed in 1822, and after considering other business opportunities in St. Louis, Kennerly took the position of sutler at Fort Atkinson. On his first day the men of B. Pratte & Co. introduced themselves and clarified the important relationship between the army post and the neighboring traders, especially in the exchange of mail and goods coming and going on the Missouri River.2

  On February 15, 1824, Kennerly noted, “Received from St. Louis by young Robidou a small assortment of goods which were very much wanted, and several letters from friends.” Kennerly did not identify which Robidoux, but since he used the describer “young,” it might have been Antoine or another brother and possibly Joseph E., the eighteen-year-old son of Joseph III. Joseph would have hardly still been referred to as “young.”3 More than likely Kennerly spoke of Antoine, for four days later that “young” Robidoux received a passport from Colonel Leavenworth to cross Indian lands in the direction of New Mexico. Ten years younger than Joseph, Antoine was in his prime, tall and slender, athletic and robust, and still possessing the polished mannerisms of his upper-class St. Louis upbringing, and displayed the charm and personality one might expect from a young don. As Kennerly indicated, he had come up river from St. Louis where he picked up mail and acquired a stock of merchandise from the family's own trading house and other investors, possibly including members of the Chouteaus' consortium.

  Kennerly does not say specifically whether or not Robidoux had brought anyone with him, but as the passport from Leavenworth stated, “Antoine Robidoux and the other persons named within,” indicates he had engagés ready to go out with him. On the assumption that Antoine left fairly soon after receiving his passport, he may have been in the company of Etienne Provost, a fellow Frenchman of wide experience who had worked with Ashley and Henry in 1823 and knew the Green River trapping grounds well. It would also be a good assumption the party did not go out to New Mexico empty handed. Joseph provided pack animals and a cargo of Indian merchandise, much of which came from his store of goods at Council Bluffs.4

  On March 17, 1824, Kennerly reported, “Robidow passed on his way to the otoes,” which most certainly would have been Joseph, who loved working with that particular tribe and more than likely kept a woman there. On April 17, he writes, “a Spaniard who has come over a few days ago—went to Cabannies to day, called at store and appears very polite.” He found that there had been “Frequent visits by Mr. Cabanne & Robidou in May 20, 21, 23.”5 That Spaniards from New Mexico trekked to Council Bluffs is a good indication that the Santa Fe business connection extended beyond just Franklin, Missouri. The note regarding the frequent visits of Cabanné and Robidoux cannot be directly related to the visit by the Spaniard, but one can imagine that both men would have be
en keenly interested in what he had to say about New Mexico.

  Where had Antoine gone, after leaving Fort Atkinson, again assuming sometime shortly after his passport issuance? There are two possibilities. First, he went directly to New Mexico, probably to Taos, to refit and resupply, and possibly met with brother Louis, who may have already set up shop there in 1823. The second being he went due west from Fort Atkinson, through the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of South Pass, as Ashley's men had done, and directly into the Green River valley. Being part of a larger company of trappers, either joining Provost outright or simply traveling for additional protection, had advantages. It seems unlikely that Antoine would have signed on as an engagé of Provost. With his older brother to provide the needed trade goods and trapping equipment, the relationship with Provost must have been symbiotic, for the mutual benefit of both ventures. Also the fact that the brothers, at Joseph's behest, had decided to set up a base in New Mexico offers little support to the idea that Antoine would have gone off in the tracks of Ashley's men up the Platte taking the northern route into the Green River country despite the fact that Provost knew the way.