The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West

by Robert J. Willoughby

  By the end of October 1831, Robidoux changed his view of the post at Blacksnake Hills, writing Chouteau, “I will not change the location—I am exactly on the Black Snake below the hills and it is the most beautiful place on the Missouri. You would still like me to amuse you with my complaints, but you will be disappointed—I will make no more—I gain nothing by it. I have been obliged to buy $30 worth of ham, $50 worth of deer skins and about $75 to help me build the house. Where could I get this money—I have already spoken to you of it.” And on a personal family note, “If Michelle used her money in the purchase of G. Bissell's house and if my brother Esdore [Isadore] needs 2 to 300 piastres to buy some farmland, do me the kindness of lending it to him; he will give it back to you as soon as he receives some and I am security.”19 Isadore never seemed to be at the lead in any of the brothers' ventures. He had gone to New Mexico for a while, mostly working as a clerk for one of his brothers. He worked on and off for the Chouteaus in a variety of capacities but never ranked higher than an engagé. He did dabble in real estate and farmed as the letter from Joseph indicates. He remained the least visible of the Brothers Robidoux throughout his life, in a supporting role that still benefited the rest.

  Reportedly, Robidoux spent much time alone at the Blacksnake Hills, isolated in the sense that he was probably the only white man at the post on any given day, but definitely not alone in any other case. He owned a French-speaking black slave named Poulite, who kept house, and from some contemporary accounts, Indian wives and children abounded. None of the Brothers Robidoux lived as monks. While in isolation from their legal wives, they reflected the morals of nearly all the French Creole trappers, becoming squaw men. In that context, the moral issue of adultery aside, it would seem unreasonable to expect that Joseph practiced anything other than the frontier polygamy he always had with Angelique three hundred miles away in St. Louis.20

  By the early 1830s, the Blacksnake Hills post began developing a hinterland. A hinterland is an outlying region around a town or city that usually is based on a mutually beneficial economic relationship. The town, or initially the post, provides a central collecting point for the area's produce, furs, or lumber, later crops, and livestock. In return, the hinterland receives finished or manufactured goods and services it would not otherwise have access to. A town or city is tied to its hinterland through its transportation links. Decisions to aggressively pursue or expand hinterland led to the eventual development and prosperity of many cities in the United States. For the Blacksnake Hills post, the first hinterland developed along with Robidoux's Indian trade operation and became fairly extensive. Robidoux employed around twenty engagés to develop the trade throughout the area, extending east seventy miles to the Grand River (Grande Riviere as Robidoux called it) valley and west into what is now Kansas at least fifty miles. When his traveling traders did not make contact, the Indians from both sides of the Missouri River traveled directly to the Blacksnake Hills post to do business.21

  What merchandise did Joseph Robidoux handle at his post? Fabric with Indian prints, blankets, check shirts, fancy calico, ribbons, vermillion, gun flints, needles, pig lead, sugar, and Kentucky tobacco stocked his shelves, according to a packing bill from the Chouteaus in St. Louis.22 As an initial transportation link with his customers, Robidoux operated a rudimentary ferry that connected his post with the west bank of the river. Steamboats, involved in government operations such as ferrying troops or supplies, or those active in the upriver fur trade, plied past the post during the spring and summer months, gradually replacing the keelboats and mackinaws as primary cargo haulers. Robidoux got his supplies from St. Louis, so he benefited from the slowly increasing steamboat traffic, though he still sent furs down river on mackinaws. Steamboats hauled a lot of merchandise, and the number of paying passengers increased steadily during the 1830s. At first, only those with specific interest in the wilderness, the fur trade, or missionary work went very far up the Missouri. The Blacksnake Hills site gradually became a recognized stopping point on the way upstream, for taking on a load of fuel and for crewmen to stretch their legs. Robidoux's post offered a visible and relatively safe place to rest. Joseph Robidoux cut fire wood for the steamboat captains.23

  In late November 1831, Joseph Robidoux wrote to J. B. Sarpy in St. Louis, still not certain the trade he had hoped for would develop. “Toiniche arrived here on the 24th and left on the 25th to continue on his way—he has been as far as Nandahoi—but found it very high—he was never able to get the Indians to consent to cross it because they did not know how to swim. He returned here. These Indians do not want to go up nor down. I understand all this—they want to remain here. I do not know what I shall do. I expect any day some men at Mr. Cabanne's and will send them off as soon as Toiniche has left me the letters with which he was entrusted, as well as the two horses and saddle; I will get them to their destination as soon as possible. It would have been better to bring a herd of wild buffalo than these two Indians who leave when they have time and whom we do not understand at all. As for business I can tell you nothing. The deer hunt is almost over and not an Indian has appeared.” On a personal note, he asked Sarpy to also look out for Isadore, who, as probably the least ambitious of the brothers, needed either a job or financial help at times. “I have written to Cadet that if Isadore needs money to give him some. He wrote me he would do it, but I think he will not need it and I hope he will not get me more in debt than I am. Besides, he is on the spot and he can see his needs better than I.” The note indicates that Isadore had returned to St. Louis during 1831 from New Mexico. In early December, Joseph indicated to Sarpy that he would be returning to St. Louis during the month.24

  Joseph Robidoux reopened business with his fellow French traders in the area, assuming one of the alternating roles of either creditor or debtor, depending on the situation. Lucien Fontenelle signed a promissory note to pay Joseph III the sum of $700 on November 25, 1831. The due date of the note, April 6, 1833, listed Fontenelle, Drips & Company as the debtor. Robidoux's name appears along with the Missouri Company, subsidiary of the American Fur Company as the creditor. The note did not state why Fontenelle borrowed the money, but it very well may have grown out of the earlier association in 1830 for the expedition to the upper Missouri region in which Michel participated.25

  By the end of 1831, Joseph established himself at Blacksnake Hills, the site of the future city of St. Joseph, Missouri, but he showed no interest in developing a town at that time. Besides, he could not have legally done so even if he wanted to, because the Blacksnake Hills were not yet part of the state of Missouri. When Missouri became a state in 1821, its western boundary, drawn along a straight north-south line, followed approximately, west longitude, 94 degrees, 40 minutes. Northwest Missouri, from that line west to the natural course of the Missouri River, remained Indian country. That is why Joseph pushed Chouteau to help him expand to the east, toward the Grand River valley, right on top of the state's western boundary. “It is absolutely necessary that we go there, and I am going to take the precaution that we have a license. I hope that I will receive your orders and instructions in a hurry on this subject. I think we have enough merchandise unless the Indians are unsettled. I hear that the Panis have almost all died of smallpox, the Mahas too—the Ottos also have it. If our Indians also catch it, it will do us considerable harm.” In another letter he indicated that “Baptiste Roy is leaving today to build a cabin on the Grande Riviere which is only fifty miles from here—and I will be if the Indians come from this side, as there is no doubt.”26

  In his letters to Pierre Chouteau, Joseph Robidoux conducted mainly business. There is rarely a mention of any personal matters, nor his large family. He never mentioned Angelique, not even an admonition for Chouteau to check in on her during his extended absence. He did bring some of his sons up the Missouri to work for him when they came of age, but even then there is no recollection of much regarding them except for their role in the business. In January 1832, the eldest son, by first w
ife Eugenie, Joseph E., wrote his father inquiring about his position at the Blacksnake Hills. “My dear papa, I beg you in the name of the good God to tell me if I am earning something; it seems to me that I am earning 100 piastres a month. I am worth 2 of your common men. This is the third or fourth time I have asked you if I am earning anything in my letters and you will not give me any news or any answer as to what I earn. Please be so good as to give me the answer that would give me courage again in spite of the fact that I have little of it. I am the one who kept back a third of the credits in the night—the men will know and tell you. I embrace you, my dear papa, your son forever, Joseph E. Robidoux.” In a letter dating from two years later, Joseph lists some accounts with Joseph E. and indicates he is making a salary of only $20 per month.27

  By March 1832, Joseph returned from St. Louis and his winter visit to the family, finding the trade a bit better than before. There had been fighting among the Indians, and Robidoux complained about a general lack of communication in the area, being unable to locate the Indians and even some of his own men. And whiskey had become a major problem, interfering with the trade.

  The Indians were hunting amongst the Americans on the lower part of the Grande Riviere because they were afraid of the Sioux and the Mahas. They would have had better hunting without this war. I have had only 2,500 piastres worth from the whole rascally tribe—Ayois, and yet they have good hunting—I don't know where they placed their skins. I have not seen them since they received their credits. It was the post of your friend Bte. Roy; all I can tell you is that every habitant on the Platte and Grand Rivers is a whiskey merchant. I am astonished that, with all the years that you have traded here, you have not been better informed. Except for whiskey—for two consecutive months they have been drunk all the time. They will give anything they possess to get some.

  I received a letter from Sarpy in the month of January, in which he mentions that furs are worthless. Nevertheless I am running the risk of you blaming me—I am offering 20 cents for the skins of deer, opossum and raccoons and $3 for otter. If the steamboat has not left I would be flattered for you to bring me the following: 600 feet of pine board 1¼ inches thick, 200 of the same ¾ inches thick, 1 plow, 1 cart and some good wheels—a saw—10 bushels of salt—2 quarts of flour—a complete harness—50 pounds of sugar—two casks of whiskey—1 cask of tobacco. If you can find a joiner to engage cheap, bring him with the tools for finishing the house—or else we will take Louis Roy at the Riviere des Kans.28

  Robidoux remained under the license of the American Fur Company, which was renewed for the “Black Snake Hills” by the superintendent of Indian Affairs, William Clark, on July 24, 1832. But competition in the area grew, from the firm of Valois and Leclerc, who also received license to trade in the Blacksnake Hills region on July 19, 1832, for a period of one year.29 Within two months, Baptiste Roy, a longtime friend and frequent business associate of Joseph Robidoux, took out a license from Clark on September 10, 1832, good for “one and a half year” to trade, “At the Black Snake hills, Bellevue,” and right up the river as far as the Loup fork of the Platte, including the Ottoes, Omahas, and Panis tribes. It might be considered that Joseph Robidoux again hunted two hares at once, using licenses under two different and competing holders.30

  In March 1833, Joseph Robidoux informed Chouteau he intended to head down river. Angelique still occupied the home in St. Louis, though some of the boys regularly stayed with their father at the Blacksnake Hills. He left the care of the trading house to Louis Letourneau, and could get away because the “Indians are finally leaving for the hunt: necessity obliges them; they have been here for two months and their provisions are exhausted.” Further he references some Indians coming down the river too. “The Indians are going to go down; they desire ardently to see The Cheveux Rouge—Red Hair to settle their annuities.” That red hair would have been none other than William Clark, the great explorer and superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Western Department. “From the 25th to the 30th I hope to be in St. Louis.” Then he added a rare, personal note, “Louis Lafleur writes to his wife that if she needs something she should go to find you. He is a very good man; I am well satisfied with him.”31

  During April 1833, one early visitor stopped at Joseph's landing and wrote one of the first published descriptions of Joseph's post at Blacksnake Creek. His name was Maxmillian, Prince of Wied, and his travels took him up river on the steamboat Yellowstone, in the company of the Swiss artist, Karl Bodmer. They explored parts of the American wilderness and kept an invaluable journal and notebook of sketches. On April 24, Maxmillian began his journal entry with the following: “We saw the chain of the Blacksnake Hills, but we met with so many obstacles in the river that we did not reach them till towards the evening. They are moderate eminences, with many singular forms, with an alternation of wooded and open green spots. Near to the steep bank a trading house has been built, which was occupied by a man named Roubedoux [sic] an agent of the Fur Company.” Maxmillian described Robidoux's house as white and “surrounded by the bright green prairies,” with a “very neat appearance.”32

  In the same entry, Maxmillian reported about the still very apparent wildness of the territory: “When the steamboat lay to, between 500 and 600 paces from the trading house, some of the engages of the company came on board, and reported that the Joway [Ioway] Indians, whose village was about five or six miles distant, had made an incursion into the neighboring territory of the Omahas, and killed six of these Indians.”33

  More competition came to the area in April 1833, in the form of the firm of Sublette and Campbell, licensed to trade over the entire length of the Missouri River, but beginning at the “Black Snake hills, Bellevue, and Roy's grave,” Joseph Robidoux's old stomping grounds. He viewed the agents of that company as he did all other intruders, as interlopers on his trade. When not in contact with his trading base in St. Louis, Joseph Robidoux traveled south to Liberty, Missouri, to trade and acquire needed items for his personal use. Liberty lay fifty miles overland from the Blacksnake Hills post, or many miles below on the winding Missouri River. Either way it proved a long day's trip over barely recognizable roads by horse or several days by boat. On September 25, 1833, he traded in Liberty with Hiram Rich, bringing a varied shopping list. Robidoux paid for some postage in the amount of seventy-five cents, then bought a box of wafers, a scythe and stand, a bottle of whiskey, a quart of brandy, a pocket knife, sugar, nails, a plain bit, and two pairs of socks. He also had a meal, which cost him $1, and left with a total bill of $15.87.34

  In Joseph's absence, his eldest son, Jules, nearing twenty years old, conducted business in his father's name in St. Louis. On November 29, 1833, Jules requested from Pierre Chouteau Jr. the sum of ten dollars to be charged against the account of his father, Joseph Robidoux. Typical of Indian traders, a line of credit to support the family in the trader's absence had to exist, and Joseph knew he could send his wife or children to Cadet anytime they needed funds for the most basic items.35

  As 1833 came to a close, Robidoux reported to Pierre Chouteau that one of the company's primary French operatives might be getting into trouble. Joseph Robidoux and Roy had been trading the region around the Blacksnake Hills and to the north on the Missouri for a number of years together. “You are reminded that Baptiste Roy uses whiskey; this is only too sure, and he still continues in spite of my observations of the danger to which he exposes himself—he makes fun of me and of the whole Company—he does not fear that you will expose him. Because, he says, you use it also and that you had him do it himself & that we have had some here for the last two years. Now, if someone has reported that to you it is absolutely false, for I assure you that in the last two months not five gallons of whiskey has entered the house. It is not only the law that prevents me from having whiskey—but that I have a horror of it, I cannot see a white drunk in my house, much less an Indian.” Based on the letter, one is left to ponder whether Robidoux had reformed his ways, about the use of whiskey as an i
mportant tool in the Indian trade. Or was he simply upset because Roy and other traders were using liquor to greater effect?36

  Joseph Robidoux complained further about Roy's trade practices but concluded that while they made him popular with some of the tribes, his profit margin suffered to the extent of being almost nil. “Baptiste, we have debauched him. He does me wrong—but I have heard that he will soon return to Pilcher's [an important trader at Council Bluffs]. It would take me too long to tell you the stories told by the Indians about what they say they heard at that Council. Only, that has made them impudent and insolent, especially when they received the credits; they told of the misfortunes we imposed on them in selling too dear; that they have been informed of the prime cost in England—and that next year they will have some factories. I repeat that it is not only Baptiste who is against me; nearly all the farmers are, and a great part of these Indians do their hunting in their settlements. I have 5000 worth scattered on the Grande Riviere; my people are there—Baptiste is not; that gives me great hope.” He also complained about the lack of horses for his men and the trouble they had running down those who owed money. “They really want to pay, but necessity and the rascals who run after them with whiskey and merchandise make it impossible for them to get rid of them. Not to have enough horses is harmful to me—and men too. I could hire Americans, but they do not suit me. I think I could obtain some horses here but they ask so much money and I do not have any.”37

  At the beginning of 1834, Joseph Robidoux sent Pierre Chouteau Jr., whom he nearly always addressed as “Dear Cadet” in care of Pratte, Chouteau & Company, a letter from Serpent Noir reporting the close of the old year and some prospects for the new: “Business is almost finished—that is, the autumn hunting. I think I shall have as many furs as last year—although the competition has been of more consequence. Baptiste Roy has about 30 to 40 packs of deer skins & 7 to 800 dollars worth of other furs. He is afraid to trade with the Ottos.” He continued, “The poor unfortunate fellow has rushed into drinking again—just as I have said—he came to the house this evening to thrash Mongrain, insult Laberge, saying that he had debauched the latter. He was encumbered with his skins—he tried to send them to Liberty by land, as the roads were too bad they were returned.” Robidoux appeared truly concerned about his old friend's drinking problem, for it completely changed his personality. He said he tried to offer Roy a low price for the skins and furs but could not make a deal. “Besides I consider that there is much danger of trouble in transportation—and much diminution in the weight when they have arrived at St. Louis.”38