USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 21
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
It was under the influence of the traders that they refused to make treaties, and under pressure from them that they consented, when it was possible to realize considerable sums, to pay alleged debts due from the Indians to the traders.
THE COLUMBIA FUR COMPANY
When the Hudson's Bay and North-West companies consolidated in 1821, about nine hundred men were thrown out of employment, and a number of these sought connection with American companies. The Columbia Fur Company was organized by Joseph Renville, a trader found on the Minnesota River by Pike's expedition in 1805, from men experienced in the fur trade. Though having a small capital, with headquarters at Lake Traverse, on the northeast border of South Dakota, where Renville had been engaged in trade previous to the War of 1812, they established a line of posts on the Missouri River in 1822; among the number Fort Tecumseh at the mouth of Bad River, in Central South Dakota-afterwards changed in location and named Fort Pierre, occupying land across the river from Pierre, the capital of South Dakota. The Premeau House was located on the west side of the Missouri near the present North Dakota state line, Fort Defiance established by discharged employees of the American Fur Company being known as Harvey, Premeau & Company, was located at the mouth of Medicine Knoll Creek, which is northeast of Pierre six miles above the Big Bend of the Missouri. There were, also, Fort Bouis, at the mouth of the Cannonball, and Mitchell's Post, near the present site of Bismarck on the land afterwards entered as a homestead by J. O. Simmons. They also had a post rear Mandan, on the Heart River, where there were large Indian villages, abandoned as a result of war with the Sioux and disease; the remaining Indians removing up to the Knife River where they were followed by the traders. Licenses were issued for the Arikara villages and for the Heart River as late as 1831. William Laidlaw and Kenneth Mckenzie, former employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, were active in the development of the interests of the Columbia Fur Company, afterwards becoming permanently established at Pierre and Fort Union in connection with the American Fur Company.
The trading posts were called "forts" because they were almost invariably fortified, in order to guard against attack, and to afford shelter to friendly Indians, who might come to the fort to trade, if pursued by their enemies. There were usually two bastions or block-houses on diagonal corners, built of logs or stone, equipped with both artillery and musketry, so arranged that every front could be raked by the fire from the fort, in case of attack.
168
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
Fort Clark was on the west side of the Missouri River, near Fort Mandan, built by Lewis and Clark. Tilton's Fort, built by James Kipp in 1822, stood a little above Fort Clark. Its abandonment was forced in 1823, by the hostility of the Arikaras, and in 1825 Kipp re-established a post at the mouth of the White Earth River, northwest of the Fort Berthold Indian Agency, which was sold to the American Fur Company in 1827.
DIVISIONS OF THE AMERICAN FUR COMPANY
Teton River post, at the mouth of the Bad River, near Fort Pierre, was owned by P. D. Papin, Henry Picotte and Carre Brothers, under the firm name of P. D. Papin & Company. The post was built in 1828-29, and sold to the American Fur Company in 1833, Picotte thereafter becoming one of the man- agers of their vast interests on the Missouri with headquarters at Fort Pierre. Sublette & Campbell also had a post in this vicinity established about this time and sold, in 1833, to the American Fur Company.
In a letter to Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, dated October 24, 1831, Thomas Forsythe spoke of the several divisions of the American Fur Company-details of whose organization have been previously given-operating above St. Louis. The division of Joseph Rolette, of Pembina and Prairie du Chien fame, in- cluded all the Indians from the Dubuque mines to a point above Fort St. Anthony, now Fort Snelling, and up the St. Peters River (now Minnesota), to its source, and also all Indians in the Wisconsin and upper part of Rock River region. J. P. Cabanna had the Indians below Council Bluffs, and August P. Chouteau had the Indians in the Osage country. Mr. Rolette procured his goods at Mackinaw, at the head of Lake Michigan, and shipped 'hem by mackinaw boats across Lake Michigan, through Green Bay and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers in Central Wisconsin, to Prairie du Chien on the east bank of the Mississippi River. From Prairie du Chien they were forwarded up the Mississippi by keel-boats and by smaller boats to other points.
Fort George, twenty-one miles below Fort Pierre, was built by Ebbitt & Cutting in 1842, for Fox, Livingston & Company, and like the other establish- ments became a part of the American Fur Company's trade monopoly.
COLTER AND FINK: CHARACTER SKETCHES
Colter and Fink are samples of the characters who sought the frontier under the stimulating influence of the fur trade, or to take advantage of the oppor- tunity to get beyond the restraint of law.
JOHN COLTER'S RACE FOR LIFE
John Colter was a soldier with the Lewis and Clark expedition, and re- quested and received his discharge on his return to the Mandan villages, desiring to remain in the Indian country. He was the first to explore the headwaters of the Yellowstone.
At one time he traveled over five hundred miles among the Indians, returning unharmed, but on another occasion he was robbed of all his clothing and of
169
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
every means of defense and of subsistence and turned out on the prairie, with 500 yards the start, and told to run!
He was followed by several hundred whooping, yelling savages, and outran them all, followed to the last by one Indian who stumbled and fell, when Colter turned on him and killed him with his own weapon. Thereafter he was on the prairie several days before he reached safety.
MICKIE FINK, OUTLAW
Mike Fink, or Mickie Phinck, as he usually wrote his own name, joined Ashley's expedition to the Yellowstone, in 1822.
At Pittsburgh he was barred from the turkey shoots, being an expert shot, and at St. Louis he had a court record for paring a negro's heel with a shot from his rifle, because he thought it would look better after such an operation.
He had two chums, one named Carpenter and the other Talbot. It was their custom to entertain their associates by each in turn shooting a cup of whiskey from the other's head.
Finally they quarreled, and in due time their reconciliation was announced, and Fink, as evidence of their renewed confidence in each other, suggested the cup of whiskey test. The first shot fell to Fink, and Carpenter took his place without flinching, though not without fear, for he knew his man. As Carpenter fell, shot through the forehead, Fink remarked: "Carpenter, you've spilled the whiskey." He then deliberately blew the smoke out of his rifle barrel, and, finally, as he felt compelled to say something, cursed the whiskey, cursed his rifle, and cursed himself.
Later he boasted that he killed Carpenter purposely, and Talbot killed him on the spot. Talbot came to his death by drowning.
The vigilance committees organized in Montana in connection with the de- velopment of the mining industries, disposed of a number of the lawless char- acters infesting this region, and the early courts at Bismarck convicted many and sent them to the penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa.
CHAPTER XII
THE CONQUEST OF THE MISSOURI-CONTINUED
FORTY YEARS IN THE HANDS OF INDIAN TRADERS-KENNETH M'KENZIE, "KING OF THE UPPER MISSOURI"-FORT UNION ESTABLISHED FIRST STEAMBOATS ON THE UPPER MISSOURI-FORTS CLARK, M'KENZIE, MORTIMER AND BUFORD- BATTLE OF FORT M'KENZIE-THE USES AND ABUSES OF INTOXICATING LIQUOR IN THE FUR TRADE- THE SMALLPOX SCOURGE OF 1837, AND CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1845-BEAR RIB PAYS THE INDIAN PENALTY FOR TREASON.
They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think : They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.
-James Russell Lowell.
Lewis and Clark, the explorers, as shown in Chapter V, Part One, found the natural inclination of the Indians disposed them to hospitality; their first impulse being to offer food with a greeting in words of friendship for the white men. They were eager for trade that would enable them to obtain means of defense against other tribes, and the articles and implements essential to their comfort and development in Indian life; but under the influence of the Indian trade, as it was prosecuted, their disposition changed and their attitude generally became one of unrelenting hostility.
For forty years the Upper Missouri region was without law, without the influence of schools or churches; given over to an inordinate desire for gain, and to the unrestrained passions of men. Not until Dr. Walter A. Burleigh, and other Indian agents commenced the culture of grain, and the missionaries gained a foothold, was there the slightest advance toward civilization.
"THE UPPER MISSOURI OUTFIT"
Among the traders who joined Joseph Renville in the organization of the Columbia Fur Company, consolidated with the American Fur Company in 1827, to whom allusion has been made, were Kenneth Mckenzie and William Laidlaw. The latter had charge of their business at Fort Tecumseh and vicinity, and the Upper Missouri was placed in charge of Kenneth Mckenzie. Their organiza- tion was a part of the American Fur Company and was known as the Upper Missouri Outfit. Daniel Lamont was a member of this organization. Their
170
FORT UNION, 1864 From a drawing by a soldier of General Sully's command, expedition of 1864.
171
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
headquarters were at Fort Tecumseh, built in 1822, at the mouth of Bad River, moved to higher ground in 1832, and christened Fort Pierre.
Kenneth Mckenzie left St. Paul in the spring of 1828, with fifty men, to build a trading post at the mouth of the Yellowstone. The point selected for the post was on the north bank of the Missouri River, almost directly on the line between the present states of Montana and North Dakota, on the identical spot where Mondak, Mont., now stands. Mondak was named "Mon" for Montana and "dak" for Dakota, established as a rival to Buford, and across the line in Montana in order to avoid the prohibition laws of North Dakota. The post was called Fort Union, as it was intended to bring all the lines of trade to a union at that point. The goods for the Upper Missouri Outfit were shipped annually from New York to St. Louis, and thence on, up the river by boats owned by the company, to Fort Pierre, Fort Union, and other Upper Missouri River points.
Fort Union was 200 feet square ; the stockade built of logs I foot in diameter, 12 feet in height, set perpendicularly, the lower end two feet in the ground. There were two block-house bastions, 12 feet square, pierced with loopholes, on diagonal corners of the fort. There was one opening, a gate of two leaves, 12 feet wide, and in one of the leaves there was a small gate 31/2 by 5 feet. As described by Edwin T. Denig, for many years bookkeeper at the fort, in a letter to John James Audubon, the celebrated ornithologist, who visited it in the summer of 1843, and remained two months and four days in the vicinity :-
"The fort was destroyed by fire. in 1831, and rebuilt that year, the bastions, 30 feet high, being built of stone surmounted by a pyramid roof. There were two stories, and the upper one had a balcony for observation. A banquette extended around the inner wall. The entrance was large, and secured by a powerful gate, changed to a double gate in 1837, on account of the dangerous disposition of the Indians because of the smallpox epidemic.
"On the opposite side of the square from the entrance was the house of the bourgeois, or master, a well-built, commodious two-story structure, with glass windows, fireplace, and other modern conveniences. Around the square were the barracks of the employees, the storehouses, workshops, stables, a cut stone powder-magazine capable of holding 50,000 pounds, and a reception room for the Indians. In the center of the court was a tall flag-staff, around which were the leathern tents of half-breeds in the service of the company. Near the flag-staff stood one or two cannon trained upon the entrance of the fort. Somewhere inside of the inclosure was the famous distillery of 1833-34 (built, as will be seen, by Mckenzie). All of the buildings were of cottonwood lumber, and everything was of unusually elaborate character."
In connection with the description of the house it was said :- "In the upper story are at present located Mr. Audubon and his suite. Here from the pencils of Mr. Audubon and Mr. (Isaac) Sprague emanate the splendid paintings and drawings of animals and plants which are the admiration of all, and the Indians regard them as marvelous and almost to be worshipped."
Fort Union always had a large force of clerks, artisans, and others employed about the place, and was the most extensively equipped of any trading post. It was built for trade with the Assiniboines, as well as a distributing point.
In May, 1867, the material used in the construction of this famous old trading
172
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
post, was sold to Capt. William Galloway Rankin of the Thirteenth United States Infantry, then stationed at Fort Union, and used in the construction of Fort Buford. Charles Larpenteur, first mentioned in Part One in connection with buffalo hunting, who had been at Fort Union most of the time since 1833, engaged in the Indian trade, was the last trader at Fort Union, and traded that year 2,000 buffalo robes, 900 elk hides, 1,800 deer skins, and 1,000 wolf pelts; total value, $5,000. After Fort Union was dismantled, he built an adobe building at that point, 96 feet long, but finding it necessary to move to Buford, he built a log building there 120 feet in length.
FORT BUFORD
The Fort Buford reservation was extended to 30 miles square, by executive order promulgated through Headquarters Department of Dakota, July 16, 1868.
In 1871, Alvin C. Leighton was appointed post trader at Fort Buford, arriving on the steamer Ida Reese, May 5, 1871; and May 8th, that year, the opposition stores were closed, and May 14th, Charles Larpenteur left on the steamer Andrew Ackley.
KING OF THE UPPER MISSOURI
Kenneth Mckenzie was fond of display, and wore a uniform of blue with gold braid. He was known as the "King of the Upper Missouri." At one time he ordered from England a coat of mail, but for what purpose never developed. His difficulties in trying to secure liquor, which he deemed absolutely essential to his trade, caused him to retire and engage in the liquor business at St. Louis, with a capital of $60,000 as his share of the profit from the Upper Missouri trade.
During a trip to Europe he was represented by J. Archibald Hamilton, and was finally succeeded by Alexander Culbertson, in 1835. In 1845, new opposi- tion having developed, in the firm of Harvey, Premeau & Company, he returned to Fort Union and remained until the following spring.
His son, Owen Mckenzie, born of an Indian wife, developed considerable ability, but was dissipated, and was killed by Malcolm Clark on one of the company's boats near Fort Union, in 1863. He had been in charge of a trading post at the mouth of the White Earth River, an important point for trade, for a number of years. Dissatisfied with the action of Clark, who then represented the American Fur Company, an assault was made and he was killed in self- defense.
THE YELLOWSTONE-FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE UPPER MISSOURI
Before the advent of the steamboat the furs had been sent down the river by mackinaws to St. Louis, where they were collected, weighed, repacked, and shipped by steamboat to New Orleans, and thence to New York. Here they were unpacked, made into bales, and shipped to Europe ; excepting some of the finest, particularly the otter, for which China afforded the best market.
Mckenzie's success had been so great in opening up trade on the Upper Mis- souri, that he urged that a steamboat be built for that trade. The American Fur
17
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
Company having adopted his recommendation, the "Yellowstone" was built at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1830, and left St. Louis on its first up-river trip April 16, 1831, in command of Capt. B. Young, arriving at Fort Tecumseh, June 19th, and returning to St. Louis with a full cargo of furs.
March 26, 1832, this vessel left on her second trip up the Missouri River, reaching Fort Tecumseh May 3Ist, where she remained several days, in the meantime the fort's location and name being changed to Fort Pierre, named for Pierre Chouteau, who was a passenger on the boat which went on to Fort Union. This was the first steamboat to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone River. She returned to Fort Pierre June 25th, having made a successful trip, and thereafter annual trips were made by American Fur Company steamboats to Fort Union.
The Indians called the Yellowstone the "fire boat that walks on the water," and were so enthusiastic over the trip that they declared they would trade no more with the Hudson's Bay Company, which, up to that time, had the major portion of the trade of the Blackfeet and Assiniboines.
STEAMER "ASSINIBOINE"-FIRST STEAMER ABOVE THE YELLOWSTONE
The steamer "Assiniboine" accompanied the steamer "Yellowstone" on its annual trip to Fort Union in 1833, having Prince Maximilian for a passenger. She continued her trip some distance above the Yellowstone but was forced into win- ter quarters by low water, and during the winter her crew built Fort Assiniboine. She was burned at Sibley Island in May, 1835, on her down trip.
FORT ASSINIBOINE
Fort Assiniboine, built by the crew of the steamer Assiniboine in enforced winter quarters, was occupied that winter by Daniel Lamont, whose party secured in trade from the Indians 179 red foxes, 1,646 prairie foxes, 18 cross foxes, 74 badgers, 269 muskrats, 89 white wolves, 196 white hares, 5 swan skins, 4,200 buffalo robes, 37 dressed buffalo cow skins, 12 dressed calf skins, 450 salted tongues, 3,500 pounds of dried meat. The fort was abandoned in the spring of 1835, and was burned by the Indians. Its exact location is not now known, but it marked the first advance of steam navigation above the mouth of the Yel- lowstone.
THE ANNUAL STEAMBOAT
For the nearly forty years that Fort Union was maintained as a trading post, the arrivals of the annual boat were events which were considered worthy of detailed description by Capt. Hiram M. Chittenden in his "History of the Amer- ican Fur Trade": "On these occasions," he says, "the dreary routine of the trader's. life suddenly changed to unwonted activity. The long looked-for annual boat was in sight !- the great event of the year-with news from the outside world, and all of the business matters that made up the purpose of the journey.
"The fort manned its guns ( for it had several small cannon mounted in the bastions), and a hearty salute was fired. The boat vigorously responded. Every- body about the fort crowded to the scene, the bourgeois, for whom a respectful space was made in the crowd, and the clerks, artisans, storekeepers, groups of
174
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
free trappers, and bands of Indians, forming in all as wild and motley a crowd as a boat ever met in port.
"Immediately upon landing, and even before the interchange of salutations was complete, the unloading of the cargo was begun. No time was to be lost in the navigation of the Missouri. Should the spring rise go down before the return of the boat, she would have to stay up all the year, as happened with the steamer Assiniboine in 1834-5.
"Night and day the roustabouts (deck hands) of the boat and the engagees (employees) of the fort, were busy carrying off the goods and carrying on the furs. A banquet on the boat, and another with the bourgeois, completed the fes- tivities, and almost before the denizens of the fort had taken their eyes' from the strange visitor, she hauled in her lines, and was speeding back to St. Louis."
From St. Louis to Fort Union was 1,760 miles. From a record kept by Charles Larpenteur from 1841 to 1847 the average speed of the steamboats from St. Louis to Fort Union was forty-four miles a day for the up trip and 123 miles for the down trip; the time for the up trip ranging from eighty days in 1841 to forty days in 1847, and for the down trip from thirty-one days in 1845 to four- teen days in 1847. On the down trip in 1832 the steamer Yellowstone carried 1,300 packs of robes and beaver. The weight of beaver shipped July 11 that year was 10,230 lb., and they expected to take on 120 to 130 packs from Pierre. Lucien Fontenelle left Fort Union that year on September 24th with 6,000 lb. of beaver from the Yellowstone, shipped in mackinaws as stated in Chapter XI.
FORT CLARK
Fort Clark was established in 1830 by James Kipp-previously mentioned as having also built Tilton's Fort-under the direction of Kenneth Mckenzie, for the Mandan trade. It was on the right or south bank of the Missouri River, fifty-five miles above the Northern Pacific Railroad bridge at Bismarck, on a bluff, in an angle of the river, on the opposite side of the river from Fort Mandan- built by Lewis and Clark in 1804-and was named for Governor William Clark, the Captain Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The fort was 132 by 147 feet, substantially built, and one of the most important posts on the Missouri River, aside from Fort Union.
Having been abandoned by the traders, who had moved to Fort Berthold, it was in the possession of the Arikaras in 1862, when, most of the warriors being absent on their winter hunt, it was attacked by the Sioux and entirely destroyed. The last vestige of the Mandan villages, later known as the "Ree" Village, having disappeared, the Arikaras joined the Mandans and Gros-Ventres ( Hidatsa) at Fort Berthold.
FORT PIEGAN
In 1831 James Kipp built Fort Piegan for the Blackfeet trade, at the mouth of the Marias River, and when he went down the river with his furs, the next spring, it was burned by the Indians.
175
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
FORT M'KENZIE
Through an interpreter, Jacob Berger, who had become acquainted with the Blackfeet when in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, Mr. Mckenzie suc- ceeded in getting the Blackfeet and Assiniboines to make a treaty of peace. The treaty is dated November 29, 1831, and was made at Fort Union. Mckenzie represented the Blackfeet, who had been at war for many years with the Assini- boines, and was mentioned in the treaty as Governor Mckenzie, ambassador of the Blackfeet, Piegans and Bloods, and the Indian parties were designated "Lords of the soil extending from the banks of the great waters unto the tops of the mountains upon which the heavens rest," and they solemnly covenanted to "make, preserve and cherish a firm and lasting peace, that so long as the waters run or the grass grows, they may hail each other as brothers, and smoke the calumet of friendship and security, and forever live in peace and as brothers in one happy family." Tahatka, also known as Gauche, was a party to this treaty.
As a result of this treaty, in 1831, David D. Mitchell established Fort Mckenzie, six miles above the mouth of the Marias River and a few miles only from the point which afterwards became Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River. It was built in the regulation manner, 140 feet square, with an exceptionally strong gate, and stood 120 feet back from the river.
The returns from Fort Mckenzie for the season of 1834-5 were 9,000 buffalo robes, 1,020 beaver, 40 otter, 2,800 muskrat, 180 wolves, 200 red foxes, 1,500 prairie dogs, 19 bears, 390 buffalo tongues brought down to Fort Union by keel boats and mackinaws with a force of thirty-five men.
From the first the fort promised excellent results, and was maintained until 1843, when, through the wanton murder of three Indians by inmates of the post (Chardon and Harvey), its abandonment was forced, and its site is now known as Brule Bottom. Harvey murdered the wounded and scalped them, and forced the squaws in the fort to execute the scalp dance about their remains. After- wards Harvey deliberately murdered one of his co-employees, at Fort Union, and flourishing his gun, which was yet smoking, shouted : "I, Alexander Harvey, have killed the Spaniard. If there are any friends of his that want to take it up, let them come on !"
MAXIMILIAN'S VISIT
The annual boat which arrived at Fort Union in 1833 brought a distinguished visitor in the person of Maximilian, Prince of Wied. There was accompanying him an artist of the name of Charles Bodmer. They were visiting at Fort Mckenzie when a number of Blackfeet, or Piegans, a tribe of the Blackfeet con- federacy, were encamped about the post.
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.