USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80
CHAPTER V THE FUR TRADERS
BEGINNING OF THE FUR TRADE-THE FRENCH THE PIONEERS-FREE TRAPPERS AND TRADERS-INFLUENCE OF THE FUR TRADER ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST -HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY-NORTH-WEST COMPANY-AMERICAN FUR COM- PANY-MANUEL LISA-MISSOURI FUR COMPANY-HUNT'S EXPEDITION- ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR COMPANY-SMITH, JACKSON & SUBLETTE-NATHANIEL J. WYETH-WYETH'S SECOND EXPEDITION-FORT HILL-PIERRE'S HOLE- BATTLE WITH THE GROS VENTRE INDIANS-DEATH OF ANTOINE GODIN-THE FUR TRADER'S PLACE IN HISTORY.
Not long after Europeans began their active explorations in North America, it was discovered that the region lying above the thirty-sixth parallel of north latitude was the richest and most extensive field in the world for the collection of fine furs. The Indians used the skins of certain fur-bearing animals for clothing, or in the construction of their wigwams, wholly unconscious that such peltries were of almost fabulous value in the European capitals. When the white men came he brought new wants to the savage-wants that could be supplied more easily by exchanging furs for goods than by any other method and soon the fur trade became an important factor in the conquest and settle- ment of Canada and the great Northwest.
In this traffic the French were the pioneers. Long before the beginning of the eighteenth century, they were trading with the Indians in the valley of the St. Lawrence River, with Montreal as the principal market for their furs. From the St. Lawrence country they gradually worked their way westward, forming treaties of friendship with the Indian tribes they encountered, crossed the low portages to the Mississippi Valley, and from there by way of the Mis- souri River to the Rocky Mountains. Lahontan, a French writer, in his "New Voyages," published in 1703, says: "Canada subsists only upon the trade in skins, three-fourths of which come from the people around the Great Lakes."
After Lewis and Clark, the first white men visiting Idaho were fur traders, and it is possible that roving traders had visited the country before that time, leaving no record of their travels or operations. In the development of the traffic three methods were pursned: First-by trading with the Indians, giving goods in exchange for skins. This plan was the most popular, because it was
63
64
HISTORY OF IDAHO
the most profitable. The Indians knew little or nothing of the actual value of the furs, or of the goods which they received in payment therefor, and un- scrupulous traders were never slow to take advantage of their ignorance. Second-by the organization of fur companies which sent hunters, trappers and agents into the districts where fur-bearing animals were most plentiful. This system was more in the nature of a permanent business, but it yielded smaller profits in proportion to the amount of capital invested. Third-by free trappers and traders who worked each on his own account and sold his furs in the inost profitable market.
- FREE TRAPPERS AND TRADERS
The free trapper wore a costume fashioned after that of the Indian-buck- skin hunting shirt and leggings-as being better adapted to the rough usage of the wilderness and therefore more serviceable than clothing brought from "The States." His outfit consisted of as many traps as he could obtain, a short- handled ax, a hunting knife, sometimes a horse and saddle, a few simple cooking utensils, a small stock of provisions (often no more than a sack of flour and a little salt), and the inevitable rifle, in the use of which he was an expert. His language was a strange jargon of mixed English, French, Spanish and Indian dialect. If he followed the streams, a canoe took the place of the horse. His dwelling, if he had one, was a rude hut on the bank of a creek or river, but he often slept in the open, with a buffalo robe for a bed, a pack of peltries for a pillow, and the canopy of heaven as his only shelter.
The free trader was a similar character, except in the nature of his outfit, which consisted usually of a small stock of trinkets, bright colored cloth, knives, hatchets, etc., which he exchanged with the Indians for their furs. They went where they pleased, were generally well received by the Indians, and traded with all whom they met until the stock of goods were exhausted. Sometimes the free trapper or trader carried his furs to St. Louis on rafts or in canoes, and at other times sold them to the agent of one of the fur companies at the nearest trading post. In the latter case they realized less profit, but they saved the time and labor of going all the way to St. Louis, which city was for many years the center of the fur trade for the entire west.
About the time the Province of Louisiana was purchased by the United States a desire arose on the part of many people to know something of the new acquisition. Hardy, adventurous individuals began to penetrate the remote interior, impatient to learn more of its resources and possibilities. The greatest attraction, and for many years the only one, it offered in a commercial way was its wealth in furs. Hence the roving trappers and traders were the first to venture into the great, unexplored West, where the foot of white man had never before pressed the soil, bringing back the fruit of their traps or the profits of their traffic with the natives. In fact, these trappers and traders were operating in Louisiana while it was still a Spanish possession. As early as 1795 a Scotchman named Mckay had a trading post known as Fort Charles on the west bank of the Missouri River, a few miles above the present City of Omaha. In 1804 Lewis and Clark met trappers returning from the Kansas Valley with a raft loaded with furs. On their return in September, 1806, they
65
HISTORY OF IDAHO
met several small parties wending their way into the wilderness for another season's catch.
INFLUENCE ON DEVELOPMENT
The influence of these men on the development of the West can hardly be estimated. Says Chittenden: "It was the trader and trapper who first explored and established the routes of travel which are now, and always will be, the avenues of commerce. They were the 'pathfinders' of the West and not those later official explorers whom posterity so recognizes. No feature of western geography was ever 'discovered' by Government explorers after 1840. Every- thing was already known and had been known for a decade. It is true that many features, like the Yellowstone wonderland, with which these restless rovers were familiar, were afterward forgotten and rediscovered in later years; but there has never been a time until recently when the geography of the West was so thoroughly understood as it was by the trader and trapper from 1830 to 1840."
Brigham Young's selection of the Salt Lake Valley as a home for the Mormons was due chiefly to information he received from trappers who had visited that region. Emigration to the Pacific Coast passed over trails which for years had been traversed by the trappers and traders. They acted as guides to Government expeditions, and the old Santa Fe Trail made easy the conquest of the Southwest at the close of the Mexican war. True, they carried corrupt- ing vices and certain infectious diseases to the Indians, but they also carried to him his first lessons in the life he was to lead in his associations with the white race. Many of the trappers married Indian women, learned the Indian language, adopted the Indian mode of living, and treated the red man as a brother, except when business rivalry prevented. Says Prof. A. F. Chamberlain: "The method of the great fur companies, which had no dreams of empire over a solid white population, rather favored amalgamation with the Indians as the best means of exploiting their country in a material way. Manitoba, Minnesota and Wis- consin owe much of their early development to the trader and the mixed blood."
What Professor Chamberlain says of Manitoba, Minnesota and Wisconsin is also true, to greater or less extent, of every state in the Northwest. The fur trade as carried on by the French was conducted by individuals or firms, some of whom were engaged in trading with the Indians about the Great Lakes as early as the middle of the seventeenth century. Not far behind the French came the English, who were the first to organize and equip, of the great fur companies mentioned by Mr. Chamberlain.
HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY
On May 2, 1670, this company received its charter from the English Govern- ment, giving it absolute proprietorship over a region of indefinite extent, with greater privileges than any English corporation had ever been granted up to that time. It was the first of the great trading associations. A few Frenchmen en- tered its employ, though its agents or factors were mostly English or Scotch, selected for their shrewdness in trade and their ability to control men. As its name indicates, the company's principal field of operations was at first in the country about Hudson's Bay, though it gradually extended its trade farther
Vol. 1-5
66
HISTORY OF IDAHO
to the westward and for many years it was the leading power in the fur trade. Much has been written in recent years concerning "trusts" and "soulless cor- porations," but no monopoly of modern times has approached in its illegal methods the persecution of competitors practiced by Hudson's Bay Company. When such competitors could not be bought out at what the Hudson's Bay factors considered a fair price, they would be crushed by unfair methods, often by actual violence.
NORTH-WEST COMPANY
At the conclusion of the French and Indian war in 1763, the English were left in undisputed possession of all that portion of North America east of the Mississippi River. Scotch merchants of Montreal then controlled the greater portion of the fur trade about Lake Superior and farther to the west. In their competition with the Hudson's Bay Company they quickly learned the advantages of cooperation and in the winter of 1783-84 they organized the North-West Company. Alexander McKenzie, one of the leading members of the company, made extensive explorations west of the Mississippi and in 1793 reached the valley of the Columbia River.
In 1801 Mr. Mckenzie, Simon McTavish and a few others withdrew from the organization and formed the new North-West Company-which became widely known as the "XY Company"- and in a short time it was the most formidable rival of the Hudson's Bay Company. This rivalry was made still more formidable in 1804 by the coalition of the old and new North-West com- panies. In October, 1814, this company purchased the trading posts of the Pacific Fur Company at Astoria. About this time the relations between the North-West and Hudson's Bay companies grew more strained than ever before, owing chiefly to the fact that in 1811 a large tract of land in the Red River Valley, between the United States boundary and Lake Winnipeg, had been granted to the Earl of Selkirk for the settlement of a colony. This was one of the most profitable trapping fields of the North-West Company, which was thereby driven to greater encroachments upon the territory claimed by its rival. In 1816 actual war broke out between the trappers and the Selkirk colonists, in which a number of lives were lost on both sides, though the colonists were the greatest sufferers. Three years of litigation followed, involving the expenditure of over half a million dollars, and in 1819 the question of the rights of the two companies came before the British Parliament. While it was pending, the matter was settled in 1821, by the consolidation of the com- panies, a remedy that had been proposed by Alexander McKenzie twenty years before. By this consolidation the Hudson's Bay Company became still more powerful and more intolerant of competition.
AMERICAN FUR COMPANY
On April 6, 1808, John Jacob Astor was granted a charter by the State of New York under the name of the American Fur Company, with liberal powers to engage in the fur trade with the Indians. Mr. Astor had entered the fur trade in Montreal in 1784, but after the purchase of Louisiana by the United States he was quick to see the advantages offered for transferring his activities to the
67
HISTORY OF IDAHO
new purchase and removed to New York. His charter has been called a "pleas- ing fiction," as he was in reality the company. It was not long, however, until the American Fur Company controlled by far the larger part of the trade of the Upper Missouri Valley and the Northwest.
Like the Hudson's Bay Company, Mr. Astor strove to build up a monopoly, but by different tactics. When a free trader could not be driven from the field by fair and open competition, Mr. Astor would buy his business and then give him a lucrative position. By this method he associated with him such experi- enced traders as Duncan McDougall, Pierre Choteau, Jr., Kenneth Mckenzie, Ramsay Crooks, Robert Mclellan, William Laidlaw, Lucien Fontenelle, the three Sarpy brothers, Joseph Robidoux, John P. Cabanne and a number of others, all of whom were well known and well liked by the Indians in the region where the American Fur Company was most active.
When Mr. Astor conceived the idea of extending his trade to the Pacific coast he adopted for that part of his business the name of the Pacific Fur Com- pany, which Chittenden says was "in reality only the American Fur Company with a specific name applied to a specific locality." Besides Mr. Astor, the active members of this company were: Wilson Price Hunt, Donald Mckenzie, Robert Stuart, David Stuart, John Clarke and Joseph Miller, all men of experi- ence in the fur trade. Articles of agreement were entered into on June 23, 1810, though active work was not commenced until the following spring. In order that the reader may gain a better understanding of the history of the American and Pacific Fur companies, it is necessary to go back a few years and note the condition of the fur trade about St. Louis and along the Missouri River.
MANUEL LISA
One of the early fur traders of St. Louis was Manuel Lisa, who was born in Cuba in 1772, but came to New Orleans with his parents when about six years old. In 1789 or 1790 he went up the Mississippi to St. Louis and entered the employ of a trading firm, learning the business in all its details. A few years later he obtained from the Spanish authorities of Louisiana the exclusive right to trade with the Osage Indians. For some twenty years this trade had been controlled by the Chouteaus, but Lisa understood the Indian character and quickly won the Osage to his standard. In 1802 he organized a company to compete with the Chouteaus in other territory, but the members could not agree and it was soon disbanded. Lisa then organized the firm of Lisa, Menard & Morrison, composed of himself. Pierre Menard and William Morrison, for the purpose of trading with the Indians on the Upper Missouri River. In 1807 he ascended that river to the mouth of the Big Horn, where he established a trading post. The next year he returned to St. Louis and was the moving spirit in the formation of the
MISSOURI FUR COMPANY
Upon his return to St. Louis, Manuel Lisa explained to some of the fur traders there the possibilities of the Upper Missouri country, and that if they were to compete successfully with the Hudson's Bay, North-West and American
68
HISTORY OF IDAHO
Fur companies some system of co-operation was necessary. In August, 1808, the Missouri Fur Company was organized with a capital stock of $17,000-a capital far too small for the magnitude of the undertaking. The original mem- bers of the company were Manuel Lisa, Benjamin Wilkinson, Pierre Menard, William Morrison, Pierre and Anguste Chouteau, Reuben Lewis, William Clark, Sylvester Labadie, Dennis Fitz Hugh and Andrew Henry.
The company succeeded to the business of Lisa, Menard & Morrison and began trading with the Indians of the Upper Missouri country, with Lisa's post at the mouth of the Big Horn as the base. A few months were sufficient to demonstrate that the trade in that section was not likely to prove as profitable as had been anticipated and the center of operations was changed to Fort Lisa, a short distance above where the City of Omaha now stands. In the fall of 1810 Andrew Henry penetrated into what is now the State of Idaho and established Fort Henry on the branch of the Snake River known as Henry's Fork, in what is now Fremont County, Idaho. This was the first trading post on any of the waters leading to the Columbia River. It was this condition of affairs that Mr. Astor had to meet when he formed his Pacific Fur Com- pany in 1810.
HUNT'S EXPEDITION
Immediately after the organization of the Pacific Fur Company, Mr. Astor began planning two expeditions to the Pacific Coast. One of these, under the leadership of Robert and David Stuart, Alexander McKay and Donald McKenzie, was to go on the ship Tonquin around Cape Horn with men and materials for establishing a settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River. The other, under Wilson Price Hunt, was to go by land up the Missouri River and follow the route of Lewis and Clark until it reached the sources of the Columbia River, selecting sites for trading posts in the Indian country.
Hunt reached St. Louis on September 3, 1810, and began making his preparations. Later in the season he left that city with three boats, but upon reaching the mouth of the Nodaway River, near the northwest corner of Mis- souri, concluded that winter was too near at hand to undertake the ascent of the river and went into winter quarters. Here a fourth boat was added and early in the spring of 1811 the expedition started up the Missouri.
Meantime the Missouri Fur Company had been watching Hunt's move- ments and nineteen days after he broke camp at the mouth of the Nodaway, Manuel Lisa set out from St. Charles, ostensibly to find Andrew Henry and bring back the winter's catch of furs, but really to keep an eye on Hunt and see that he established no trading posts in the territory claimed by the Mis- souri Fur Company. Hunt had sixty men with him, while Lisa had but twenty-six. The latter had a swivel gun in the bow of a long keel boat-one of the best craft on the Missouri-and he gained steadily on Hunt. Upon reach- ing Council Bluffs he was near enough to send a messenger to Hunt, asking him to wait, as it would be safer for the two expeditions to pass through the Indian country together. Hunt sent back word that he would delay until Lisa came up, but instead of doing so pushed forward with greater energy than before receiving the messenger. Lisa also redoubled his efforts and overtook Hunt's expedition on June 2, 1811, a short distance above the mouth of the
69
HISTORY OF IDAHO
Niobrara River. In this race Lisa broke all records for keel boat navigation on the Missouri River, averaging over eighteen miles a day for sixty days. The two expeditions traveled together through the Sioux country and arrived at the Arikara village, not far from the present city of Pierre, South Dakota, June 12, 1811, where they separated.
'It was Hunt's original intention to ascend the Yellowstone River, but upon leaving the Arikara village (June 18th) he altered his course to avoid the Blackfoot Indians and traveled in a southwesterly direction. Considerable speculation has been indulged in regarding the movements of the expedition ,from the time Hunt changed his plans until he struck the Wind River, in what is now the State of Wyoming. Knowing the general direction he wanted to pursue to reach the sources of the Columbia, and finding the Wind River coming from the northwest, Hunt decided to ascend that stream. Passing through the Wind River Mountains, he struck the upper waters of the Green River, where he encamped for several days to take advantage of the fine pasturage for his horses and procure a supply of dried buffalo meat. He then crossed over to the Snake River, descended that stream and entered Idaho in what is now Bonneville County. After following the Snake River for some distance, he turned northward and on October 8, 1811, arrived at Fort Henry, which had been abandoned by Andrew Henry a few months before.
The expedition remained at Fort Henry until the 18th and here Hunt made the mistake of abandoning his horses and undertaking the remainder of his journey in canoes. Fifteen canoes were therefore constructed during their stay at the fort and launched on the 18th. Three days later they arrived at American Falls, where they had to unload and make a portage. Another portage was necessary at Shoshone Falls, to which they gave the name of the "Devil's Scuttle Hole." For a short time the expedition encamped at Twin Falls. After struggling with the difficulties of mountain river navigation, dodging rocks and shooting rapids, for a distance of 340 miles, the canoes were discarded and the journey continued on foot. On February 15, 1812, they arrived at Astoria, having spent six months in a wilderness never before explored by white men.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR COMPANY
The Rocky Mountain Fur Company dates its beginning from March 20, 1822, when the following advertisement appeared in the Missouri Republican of St. Louis :
"To Enterprising Young Men :- The subscriber wishes to engage one hun- dred young men to ascend the Missouri River to its source, there to be employed for one, two or three years. For particulars enquire of Major Andrew Henry, near the lead mines in the county of Washington, who will ascend with and com- mand the party, or of the subscriber, near St. Louis.
"WILLIAM H. ASHLEY."
William H. Ashley was a native of Virginia, where he was born in 1778. When about twenty-four years of age he came to St. Louis and at the time of the War of 1812 was engaged in the manufacture of gunpowder. He then
70
HISTORY OF IDAHO
became interested in mining operations, in which he was associated with Andrew Henry. While Missouri was a territory he was active in the organization of the militia, in which he ultimately reached the rank of major-general. He was the first lieutenant-governor of the State of Missouri and in 1824 was defeated for governor. Later he served in Congress for several years and died at St. Louis on March 26, 1838.
Andrew Henry, the other active organizer of the company, was born in Pennsylvania and was about three years older than General Ashley. He went to Louisiana before the province was purchased by the United States and in 1808 he was one of the organizers of the Missouri Fur Company. In the summer of 1810 he was engaged in a fight with the Blackfoot Indians at the Three Forks of the Missouri River. After that he crossed the divide into what is now Idaho and built Fort Henry as already narrated. It is probable that his account of his adventures influenced General Ashley to engage in the fur trade. His death occurred on January 10, 1832.
Ashley and Henry received license on April 11, 1822, to trade on the Upper Missouri. By that time the one hundred young men advertised for had been engaged, and on the 15th the first expedition of the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- pany (the name adopted by Ashley) started up the river. This company was successful from the beginning and within four years both Ashley and Henry accumulated comfortable fortunes. In 1824 the "Ashley Beaver" became widely known among fur dealers as the finest skins in the market.
One of the young men who accompanied Ashley's first expedition into the fur country was James Bridger, then only eighteen years of age. For five years before that time he had been an apprentice to a blacksmith in St. Louis. He quickly developed into a skilful trapper, learned the Indian language just as quickly, was a dead shot with the rifle, and as he paid more attention to the geography of the country than did most of the others, became in time one of the most reliable guides in the great West. In 1856, after a quarter of a century on the frontier, he bought a farm near Kansas City, Missouri, and expressed his intention to settle down. But the "call of the wild" was too strong for him to withstand, and, though more than fifty years of age, he returned to Fort Laramie. He was then employed by the United States Government as guide, which occupation he continued to follow until he grew too old to undergo the hardships of frontier life, when he retired again to his farm and died there on July 17, 1881. He has been called the "Daniel Boone of the West," and it is said he "knew every foot of the country between the Missouri River and the Cascade Mountains."
SMITH, JACKSON & SUBLETTE
On July 18, 1826, Ashley and Henry sold out to Jedediah S. Smith, David E. Jackson and William L. Sublette, who had been associated with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company from the beginning, and who conducted the business under the old name. Although Jedediah S. Smith was really the promoter of the new firm, William L. Sublette soon became the controlling spirit. He was one of four brothers-Andrew, William L., Solomon P. and Milton G .- of Kentucky stock and all engaged in the fur trade.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.