The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West
Page 34
35. Pay to bearer, Julius Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., November 29, 1833, Chouteau-Maffit Collection, MHS.
36. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., December 28, 1833, American Fur Company 775, MHS. Also see Thorne, “Liquor,” 18.
37. Ibid.
38. Letter from Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., January 25, 1834, Chouteau Collection, MHS.
39. Letter, January 25, 1834, MHS. The relationship of M. E. to Joseph is unclear. None of Robidoux's sons by either of his wives had those initials. Possibly he was a grandson. Regarding the identity of the Mr. Jeffre referred to by Robidoux, see Thorne, “Liquor,” 18–19.
40. The receipt signed by Joseph Robidoux, and witnessed by William Duncan and Samuel Lasson does not contain the clause requiring the five years of labor. Receipt dated March 1832, Papers of the Ioway Agency, National Archives microfilm M234, R362, Frames 0387–0388.
41. Letter, John Ruland to Pierre Chouteau Jr., November 29, 1834, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.
42. Letter, General Andrew Hughes to William Clark, October 23, 1834, Papers of the Ioway Agency, National Archives microfilm, M234, R362, Frames 0383–0384.
43. Letter, General Andrew Hughes to William Clark, November 1, 1834, Papers of the Ioway Agency, National Archives microfilm, M234, R362, Frames 0393–0394.
44. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., February 26, 1835, Chouteau Family Papers, MHS.
45. Letter, January 25, 1834, MHS.
46. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., January 26, 1834, American Fur Company 777, MHS.
47. Letter, January 26, 1834, MHS.
48. Letter, January 26, 1834, MHS, and an attached letter from M. E. Robidoux to Joseph at the Black Snake Hills, January 7, 1834, MHS.
49. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., February 22, 1834, American Fur Company 781, MHS.
50. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau, March 10, 1834, American Fur Company 786, MHS. Regarding Robidoux's return, see the letter, Joseph Robidoux to P. Chouteau Jr., May 22, 1834, American Fur Company 796, MHS.
51. Maxmillian, Prince of Wied, 24:111–112.
52. Letter from Joseph Robidoux to P. Chouteau Jr., May 25, 1834. Chouteau-Maffitt Collection, MHS.
53. Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1835. 34.
54. Abstract of Licenses, January 22, 1835, 23rd Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives, Document 97. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., September 25, 1835, American Fur Company 865, MHS.
55. Bill of lading, aboard the steamboat Diana, September 7, 1834, Chouteau-Maffitt Collection, MHS.
56. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., November 22, 1834, American Fur Company 832, MHS.
Chapter 7
1. Petition for naturalization, July 16, 1829, Ritch Papers No. 111, Huntington Library. Manifesto of persons granted letters of naturalization, November 30, 1829, MANM, roll 9, frame 671. Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 8:317. Regarding the status of the Robidoux marriages, see Craver, 56.
2. Lawrence Murphy, “The Beaubien and Miranda Land Grants, 1841–1846,” New Mexico Historical Review 42, no. 1 (January 1967): 28–29. Also see Wallace, “Antoine Robidoux,” 4:262.
3. Deposition, MANM, microfilm roll 10, frame 106.
4. Ruling by Juan Rafael Ortiz, December 4, 1829, MANM, microfilm roll 11, frame 107.
5. Records of the town council of Santa Fe, MANM, microfilm roll 11, frame 336. Also see Wallace, “Antoine Robidoux,” 4:263.
6. Petition, October 9, 1830, MANM, microfilm roll 11, frame 307.
7. Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 8:318, 328. MANM, November 8, 1830, microfilm roll 11, frame 363.
8. Declaration of guarantee for foreigners, August 5, 1830, Ritch Papers No. 116, Huntington Library.
9. MANM, microfilm roll 11, frame 316.
10. Tally of votes in Santa Fe, December 26, 1831, MANM, microfilm roll 14, frame 1293.
11. Citizenship list, January 30, 1831, MANM, microfilm roll 13, frame 448.
12. Copy of petition, October 19, 1831, MANM, microfilm roll 13, frames 410–411. Wallace, “Antoine Robidoux,” 4:262.
13. Cleland, 236.
14. Blackhawk, 127.
15. Wallace, “Antoine Robidoux,” 4:265.
16. William McCrea Bailey, Fort Uncompahgre (Silverton, CO: Silverton Standard, 1990), 21. The author of this work suggests the post appeared in 1825–26, but I believe those dates are too early considering the travel of Antoine between the Council Bluffs and Taos during that period. John D. Barton in his M.A. thesis offers the date 1828, but without documentation. Regarding the working relationship between Antoine and Louis, see Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 41–42. Wallace, “Antoine Robidoux,” 4:265.
17. Ledger pages, Jackson & Sublette, 1831–1832, Sublette Family Papers, MHS.
18. Hafen and Hafen, Old Spanish Trail, n. 102.
19. Albert B. Reagan, “Forts Robidoux and Kit Carson in Northeastern Utah,” New Mexico Historical Review 10, no. 2 (April 1935): 121–132. In this article Reagan concluded the 7 in the date at Westwater Creek really was a 1.
20. Hafen and Hafen, Sage, 2:97. For another theory as to the location, see Charles Kelly, “The Forgotten Bastion: Old Fort Robidoux,” Utah Magazine (October 1946): 24–25, 40–41. Kelly photographed the site of a fort and puts forward the supposition that the post may have been the one Antoine referred to in the 1837 inscription, which was subsequently abandoned the next year, 1838.
21. Based on several interviews with descendants of Reed, John D. Barton made a good argument in his M.A. thesis that Reed, along with Julien, a nephew, and one Auguste Archambeaux trapped and traded in the area of the Unitah. John D. Barton, “Antoine Robidoux and the Fur Trade of the Uinta Basin” (M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1989). Regarding the Julien and Robidoux inscriptions, also see Charles Kelly, “Trapper in the Utah Wilderness,” Desert Magazine (July 1939): 3–5, 25. During the 1930s Kelly claimed to have taken the first photographic documentation of the inscription.
22. Kit Carson, Kit Carson's Own Story of His Life, ed. Blanche C. Grant (Taos, NM: 1926), 30. Also see Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 42.
23. Ibid., 30–31.
24. Ferris, 216–220.
25. Blackhawk, 137–139.
26. William Snow, “Utah Indians and Spanish Slave Trade,” Utah Historical Quarterly 2, no. 3 (July 1929): 68–69. Also see Blackhawk, 133–144.
27. Farnham, “Farnham's Travels,” 28:248–249.
28. Snow, “Utah Indians and Spanish Slave Trade,” 69. Also see Blackhawk, 142–143.
29. Kelly, “Trapper,” 5.
30. Ralph Emerson Twitchell, The Spanish Archives of New Mexico (Torch Press, 1914), 1:215. Also see Twitchell, Leading Facts, 177–181.
31. Mexican Customs House receipt, August 26, 1835, Ritch Papers No. 152, Huntington Library.
32. Thomas Chavez, 25.
Chapter 8
1. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., February 26, 1835, American Fur Company 832, MHS.
2. Letter from L. F. Linn to John Forsyth cited in History of Buchanan County, Missouri, 1881 (rpt.; Cassville, MO: Litho Printers & Bindery, 1973), 107. During the early 1830s, Linn championed the goal of adding the Platte Purchase area to the state, among members of the congressional delegation. Also see Perry McCandless, A History of Missouri, 1820–1860 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1972), 116–117.
3. The text of the treaty is reproduced in History of Buchanan County, Missouri, 109–111. For further information on the Platte Purchase, see McCandless, 117. Also see Howard McKee, “The Platte Purchase,” Missouri Historical Review 32 (1938): 129–147.
4. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., September 25, 1835, American Fur Company 865, MHS.
5. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Abbady Sarpy, February 3, 1836, American Fur Company 878, MHS.
6. Ibid.
7. Draft of treaty, October 15, 1836, The Papers of the Superintendent of Ind
ian Affairs-St. Louis, William Clark Papers, Volume 1:260, microfilm MS 94.
8. Rudolph Kurz related stories about Robidoux's love of and skill at poker play in his journal. See Hewitt, Rudolph Kurz, 67–68. Also in Paxton's Annals of Platte County, he relates how Robidoux was brought up on several charges of “gaming,” card playing, and how the court let him off (108).
9. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., July 20, 1839, American Fur Company 1132, MHS.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., July 29, 1839, American Fur Company 1133, MHS.
13. Letter, Ramsey Crooks to Pierre Chouteau Jr., July 4, 1839, American Fur Company 1127, MHS.
14. McCandless, 37.
15. Willoughby, Robidoux's Town, 17–18.
16. Buchanan County, Missouri, Records of the Buchanan County Court, Book 1:36. Robidoux was allowed the sum of $30 in December 1839 for the use of a room for the court meetings. He is listed in records as drawing money for the room and fuel for several months after that and on several pages as a designated polling place in Washington Township.
17. Ibid., 73.
18. From the journal of Richard Hayes McDonald, in the collection of the Library of the Commonwealth of Virginia, cited in Sheridan Logan, Old St. Jo (John Sublett Logan Foundation, 1979), 21.
19. Letter, Joseph Robidoux to Pierre Chouteau Jr., August 16, 1840, American Fur Company 1126, MHS.
20. Ibid.
21. The names of many early craftsmen and businessmen in and around the Blacksnake Hills are listed in History of Buchanan County, 400–401.
22. Records of the Buchanan County Court, Book 1:184.
23. Robidoux, 106–111.
24. John Brown, “Platte Purchase,” original in the St. Louis Reveille reprinted in the Gazette, August 15, 1845.
25. Bartlett Boder, “Old Saint Jo,” Museum Graphics 6, no. 2 (Spring 1954): 8–9.
26. Logan, 24.
27. An original plat of the town is in the Recorder's Office, Buchanan County, Missouri. A copy of the Smith plat, prepared by Hall Abstract Company, St. Joseph, Missouri, is found in the file 587, Boder Collection, St. Joseph Area Chamber of Commerce, St. Joseph.
28. Complete copies of the Declaration of the Proprietor, Certificate of Proprietor's Acknowledgement, and the promissory note to Chouteau may be found in the Recorder's Office, Buchanan County, Missouri, and in History of Buchanan County, 405–411.
29. Hewitt, Kurz, 54.
30. Gazette (St. Joseph), April 25, 1845.
Chapter 9
1. Francis Fuller Victor, The River of the West (Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1983), 255.
2. Morgan and Harris, 279.
3. Victor, 259.
4. Farnham, “Farnham's Travels,” 28:174–175.
5. Ibid., 28:252–253. Also see Chittenden, 2:945.
6. Farnham, “Farnham's Travels,” 28:252–253. Regarding Robertson, see Cecil Alter, “Auerbach Memoirs,” Utah Historical Quarterly 9, no. 1–2 (1941): 53.
7. Victor, 260–261.
8. Twitchell, Leading Facts, 55–64.
9. Endorsement of school and Levi Keithly application, February 9, 1839, Ritch Papers No. 173, Huntington Library.
10. Affidavit of Charles Bent, witnessed by Louis Robidoux, October 18, 1839, Santa Fe Collection, MHS.
11. Louis Robidoux to Jose Francisco Ortiz, August 2, 1839, Ritch Papers No. 177, Huntington Library.
12. Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 8:320.
13. Clyde and Mae Reed Porter, John E. Sunder, ed., Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960), 203–204.
14. Ibid., 202, 213.
15. Ibid., 202, 204.
16. Ibid., 206–207.
17. Ibid., 208.
18. Ibid., 208–209.
19. Durham, “Alvarez,” 292–293.
20. John Bidwell, Echoes of the Past About California, ed. Milo Milton Quaife (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons, 1928), 13–14. Also see Irving Stone, Men to Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West, 1840–1900 (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1956), 26–27.
21. Benjamin Read, “Perils of the Santa Fe Trail in Its Early Days (1822–1852),” El Palacio 19, no. 10 (November 1925): 207–208. Also see Wallace, 30–31.
22. Weber, Taos Trappers, 43.
23. Louis Robidoux inscription, Polaroid print by George Stewart, MHS.
24. Collet's Index, St. Louis City Recorder of Deeds, August 30, 1841. Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 8:322.
25. Twitchell, Leading Facts, 69–82.
26. A Report on an Exploration of the Country Lying Between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains by the Line of the Kansas and Great Platte Rivers, March 1, 1843, 28th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Report 174, 278–279.
27. Joseph Williams, Narrative of a Tour From the State of Indiana to the Oregon Territory in the Years 1841–1842, in To the Rockies and Oregon 1839–1842, ed. Leroy Hafen and Ann Hafen (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1955), 271.
28. Ibid., 272–273.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid., 273–274.
31. Ibid., 274–275.
32. Ibid., 276–277.
33. Letter, Charles Bent to Manuel Alvarez, September 4, 1842, in “Bent Papers,” New Mexico Historical Review 30, no. 1 (January 1955): 160.
34. Hafen and Hafen, Sage, 2:89–90. Also see Cleland, 248.
35. Hafen and Hafen, Sage, 2:97–98.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid., 2:126.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid., 2:133.
40. Wallace, “Antoine Robidoux,” 4:270–271.
41. Letter, Joe Sublette to William Sublette, October 31, 1842, Sublette Papers, MHS.
42. Letter, Charles Bent to Manuel Alvarez, February 15, 1843, “Notes and Documents,” New Mexico Historical Review 2, no. 2 (April 1926): 165–166.
43. John W. Nelson, “Louis Robidoux, California Pioneer” (Unpublished master's thesis, University of Redlands, 1950), 31–32. Also see Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 8:323. Robidoux, 177.
44. Fred Perrine, ed., “Military Escorts on the Santa Fe Trail,” New Mexico Historical Review 2, no. 3 (July 1927): 293–294.
45. Letter, Solomon Sublette to William Sublette, May 5, 1844, Sublette Papers, MHS.
46. Robidoux, 178.
47. Governor of New Mexico to the Ministro de Relaciones Exteriroes y Gobernacion, 1844. MANM in John D. Barton, “Antoine Robidoux and the Fur Trade of the Uinta Basin” (M.A. Thesis, Brigham Young University, 1989), 69.
48. Blackhawk, 130–131.
49. David J. Weber, “American Westward Expansion and the Breakdown of Relations Between Pobladores and Indios Barbaros on Mexico's Far Northern Frontier, 1821–1846,” New Mexico Historical Review 56, no. 3 (July 1981): 227–229.
50. Blackhawk, 184–185.
51. David J. Weber, “Louis Robidoux: Two Letters From California, 1848,” Southern California Quarterly 54, no. 2 (1972): 105–116. There are some local histories of San Bernardino and Riverside counties that provide anecdotal, and inaccurate biographical information that requires some sifting. The best is probably George and Helen Beattie, Heritage of the Valley: San Bernardino's First Century (Pasadena, CA: San Pasqual Press, 1939), 46, 61, 68. Also see Elmer Wallace Holmes, History of Riverside County California (Los Angeles: Historic Record Company, 1912), 17–19, and John Brown and James Boyd, History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties (The Western Historical Association, 1922), 1:28, 1:320.
52. Letter, Louis Robidoux to Manuel Alvarez, May 1, 1848, in Weber, “Two Letters,” 109–110.
53. Weber, “Louis Robidoux,” 8:325.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. Weber, Taos Trappers, 215–216; Blackhawk, 186.
57. Wallace, “Antoine Robidoux,” 4:271.
58. Ibid., 4:272.
59. Missouri Democrat, September 17, 1845. Reprint from the St. Joseph Gazette. Blackhawk, 18
6.
60. Receipt, Antoine Robidoux to Sublette, July 4, 1845, Sublette Papers, MHS. Morgan and Harris, 362, 376, 383.
Chapter 10
1. Bernard DeVoto, The Year of Decision: 1846 (1942: rpt., New York: Truman Talley Books, 2000), 239–240.
2. DeVoto, 1846, 254–255.
3. Letter, Kearny to Antoine Robidoux, June 4, 1846, Kearny Letter Book, MHS. George Rutledge Gibson, Journal of a Soldier Under Kearny and Doniphan, 1846–1847, Southwest History Series, ed. Ralph Bieber (Glendale, CA: A. H. Clark Company, 1935), 31, 131–135.
4. DeVoto, 1846, 264–265.
5. Ibid., 270–271.
6. Ibid., 275–277.
7. Stella M. Drumm, ed., Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin 1846–1847 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1926), 135–136.
8. Gazette (St. Joseph, Missouri) October 9, 1846.
9. Ibid., November 20, 1846. DeVoto, 1846, 360–371.
10. Lansing B. Bloom, ed., “Group of Kearny Letters,” New Mexico Historical Review 5, no. 1 (January 1930): 31.
11. Drumm, 135–136.
12. Weber, “Two Letters,” 109.
13. Report No. 157, House of Representatives, 34th Congress, 1st Session, May 23, 1856, and Report No. 226, House of Representatives, 34th Congress, 1st Session, July 19, 1856. Robert V. Hine, Edward Kern and American Expansion (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962), 47. Also see Wallace, Antoine Robidoux, 38–39, and Robidoux, 198–199.
14. DeVoto, 1846, 280–281.
15. Weber, “Two Letters,” 106–107.
16. Ibid.
17. Weber, “Two Letters,” 108.
18. Ibid., 109.
19. Letter, Louis Robidoux to Manuel Alvarez, June 17, 1848, in Weber, “Two Letters,” 111–112.
Chapter 11
1. Willoughby, Robidoux's Town, 26.
2. Notes From Board of Trustee Meetings, 1845–1851, City of St. Joseph Clerk's Office.
3. Gazette (St. Joseph), May 30, 1845.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Gazette, April 25, 1845, and December 19, 1845.
8. Ibid., March 6, 1846.
9. The author has visited the Scott's Bluff area and the site of Robidoux Pass and the trading post that has been reconstructed there. Robidoux Pass is several miles south of the main Bluff, which forms the national monument, and the later opened Mitchell Pass that lies next to it. For an excellent overview of the Platte River Road, see Merrill Mattes, The Great Platte River Road (Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1969), passim.