USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 6
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Lewis and Clark took one of the pirogues and went up the Platte about a mile. "They found the current very rapid, rolling over sand and divided into a number of channels, none of which is deeper than five or six feet." The journal of the 21st concludes: "With much difficulty we worked around the sand-bars near the mouth and came to above the point, having made fifteen miles."
After going about ten miles on the 22d, they came to "a high and shaded situation on the north (east), where we camped, intending to make the requisite observations, and to send for the neighboring tribes for the purpose of making known to them the recent change in the Government and the wish of the United States to cultivate their friendship." Coues locates this camp near the line be- tween Mills and Pottawattamie counties, Iowa, and nearly opposite Bellevue, Neb. The expedition remained here until the 26th, "during which time we dried pro- visions, made new oars, and prepared our dispatches and maps of the country
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we had passed for the President of the United States, to whom we intend to send them by a pirogue from this place." The messengers sent out went to the Otoe and Pawnee villages, being absent from the camp for two days, but they found no Indians for the reason that this was the season of the buffalo hunt.
The journey was resumed up the river at noon on the 27th and after going about 107/2 miles they stopped on the west bank to examine "a curious collection of graves or mounds." The result of the examination is thus stated in the jour- nal: "Not far from a low piece of land and a pond is a tract of about two hundred acres in circumference, which is covered with mounds of different heights, shapes and sizes; some of sand and some of earth and sand, the largest being nearest the river. These mounds indicate the position of the ancient village of the Otoes, before they retired to the protection of the Pawnees."
The site of this ancient village, as noted by Lewis and Clark, is near the south- east corner of Douglas County, Nebraska. After examining the mounds, the expedition proceeded on up the river and camped "on the bank of a high, hand- some prairie, with lofty cottonwood in groves near the river." Some historians fix the site of this camp as a little above the present City of Omaha.
On the 29th of July the expedition passed the mouth of the Boyer River and that day messengers were sent to the Indian villages with invitations to "meet us above on the river." On the 3d of August a council was held with some of the Otoe and Missouri Indians at a place named in the journal of the expedition as Council-bluff. Regarding the location of this place, Coues says :
"That is Council Bluffs, the name of the now flourishing city in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, opposite the still greater City of Omaha, Douglas County, Ne- braska. Here is the origin of the name, though the city is much below the exact spot where the historical incidents took place, and on the other side of the river. In the text, the name usually stands Council-bluff, in one hyphenated word. The spot is not marked on Lewis' map of 1806; on Clark's of 1814 the words 'Council Bluff' are lettered, but on the Iowan side of the river, with no mark on the Nebraskan side to indicate the exact spot. Hence some confusion arose, and another element of vagueness was introduced by the fact that some maps extended the name 'Council Bluffs' to the whole range of hills along the river on either side. The spot is marked on Nicollet's map, as determined by him in 1839. It was later the site of Fort Calhoun, in the present Washington County, Nebraska."
The location as determined by Nicollet is verified to some extent by the description of the place in Lewis and Clark's journal, which says: "The situation of it is exceedingly favorable for a fort and trading factory, as the soil is well calculated for bricks, there is an abundance of wood in the neighborhood, and the air is pure and healthy. It is also central to the chief resorts of the Indians ; one day's journey to the Otoes; 11/2 to the Pawnees; two days from the Mahas ; 21/2 from the Pawnee Loups village; convenient to the hunting grounds of the Sioux ; and twenty-five days journey to Santa Fe."
On the 11th of August the expedition halted for a short time at Black- bird's grave, and on the 13th Sergeant Ordway and four men were sent to the Omaha village "with a flag and presents, in order to induce the Mahas to come and hold a council with us." The next day they came "to the ruins of the ancient Maha village, which once consisted of 300 cabins, but was burnt about four
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years ago, soon after the smallpox had destroyed 400 men and a proportion of women and children."
Some days before this a small party had been sent back to the Otoe village for a deserter, and to request the Otoe and Missouri chiefs to join the expedition at the Omaha village for the purpose of concluding a peace between the tribes. On the afternoon of the 18th this party returned, bringing in the deserter and accompanied by eight Otoe and Missouri chiefs and a French interpreter. From these chiefs Lewis and Clark learned the cause of the war between the Otoe and Omaha. It appears that two Missouri Indians went into the Omaha country to steal horses, but were caught and killed. The Otoe and Missouri felt called upon to avenge the death of their tribesmen, and over this trivial incident the two tribes became involved in a war.
A council was held on the 19th, in which the Omaha, Otoe and Missouri chiefs took part. Captain Lewis explained the change in government and that the Great Father at Washington desired his red children to live in peace with each other. Presents, such as medals, flags and tobacco, were then distributed, the Indians agreed to bury the tomahawk, and at the conclusion of the council each Indian received a "dram of whisky."
On Clark's map of the Missouri River country is shown the location of the Omaha village, not far from the present Town of Ponca, the county seat of Dixon County, Nebraska, and is marked "1,500 souls."
The last camping place of Lewis and Clark in Nebraska is in Knox County, where they stopped on August 28, 1804, "in a beautiful plain to await the arrival of the Sioux, to whom messengers had been previously sent." The remainder of the expedition has no direct bearing upon Nebraska. They reached the sources of the Missouri, crossed the Rocky Mountains and descended the Columbia to the Pacific Coast. On their return they stopped on September 8, 1806, at Coun- cil Bluff (Fort Calhoun), and "were confirmed in our belief that it would be an eligible site for a trading establishment."
That night they occupied their old camp opposite Bellevue and about 8 o'clock the next morning they passed the mouth of the Platte, noticing that the sand- bars which gave them so much trouble two years before had been washed away. On September 22, 1806, they reached a military camp on the Missouri, three miles above the mouth, and spent the day with the soldiers. The last entry in the journal says : "On the 23d we descended to the Mississippi and round to St. Louis, where we arrived at 12 o'clock; and having fired a salute, we went on shore and received the heartiest and most hospitable welcome from the whole village."
It was through this expedition that the Government gained its first official knowledge of the territory acquired by the Treaty of Paris-a territory that nearly doubled the area of the United States, and from which has since been formed all or a part of thirteen states, not the least important of which is Nebraska.
CHAPTER IV
THE FUR TRADERS
IMPORTANCE OF THE FUR TRADE IN EARLY DAYS-THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY -- THE NORTHWEST COMPANY -- FREE TRAPPERS AND TRADERS-MANUEL LISA-THE MISSOURI FUR COMPANY-THE AMERICAN FUR COMPANY- ROYE'S POST AT OMAHA-PETER A. SARPY-ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR COMPANY-COLUMBIA FUR COMPANY-MARKETING THE FURS-SMUGGLING LIQUOR TO THE INDIANS -- GOVERNMENT EXPEDITIONS.
North America, above the thirty-sixth parallel of north latitude, was, at the time of its discovery by Europeans, the richest and most extensive field for col- lecting fine furs in the world. The Indians used the skins of some of the fur- bearing animals for clothing, or in the construction of their wigwams, but when the white man came he brought new wants to the savage-wants which could be satisfied by exchanging furs for the white man's goods. The fur trade was therefore an important factor in the conquest and settlement of Canada and the great Northwest. 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."
The French were the pioneers in the fur trade. Long before Lahontan wrote, they were trading with the Indians in the Valley of the St. Lawrence River, with Montreal as the principal market for peltries. From the St. Lawrence country they gradually worked their way westward, forming treaties of friend- ship and trade with new Indian tribes, crossed the low portages to the Mississippi Valley, whence the Missouri River opened the way to the Rocky Mountains.
THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY
Not far behind the French came the English traders. The Hudson's Bay Company was chartered in London on May 2, 1670, and was the first of the great trading associations. Its agents or factors were mostly English and Scotch, though a number of Frenchmen entered the employ of the company. Many of these intermarried with the Indians. A. F. Chamberlain, of Clark University, says: "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 the country in a material way. Manitoba, Min- nesota and Wisconsin owe much of their early development to the trader and the mixed-blood."
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THE NORTHWEST COMPANY
What is true of Manitoba, Minnesota and Wisconsin is also true in a lesser degree of every northwestern state. In 1783 the North-West Company was organ- ized at Montreal for the purpose of opening up a trade with the Indians west of the Great Lakes. Within four years from the time it commenced operations it was a formidable rival of the Hudson's Bay Company. It was reorganized in 1801, after which it was popularly known as the "XY Company." A few years later it dissolved, but during its career its agents worked among the Indians as far west as the Rocky Mountains.
FREE TRAPPERS AND TRADERS
Scarcely had the United States come into possession of Louisiana, when a desire arose among the citizens to know more of the new acquisition, and some hardy, adventurous spirits began to penetrate the remote interior, impatient to learn 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 trapper and trader was the first to venture into the great, unexplored West, where the foot of the white man had never before trodden, and bring back with him the product of his traps or the profits of his traffic with the natives. In fact, these trappers and traders were operating in Louisiana while it was still a Spanish possession. As early as 1795-96 a man named Mckay had a trading post called Fort Charles on the west bank of the Missouri River, about six miles below where the old Town of Omadi, Neb., was afterward located. In 1804 Lewis and Clark met trappers returning from the Kansas Valley with a raft loaded with furs, and on their return in September, 1806, they met several small parties wending their way into the very heart of the wilderness the explorers had just left. 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. Everything 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 were rediscovered in later years; but there has never been a time until very recently when the geography of the West was so thoroughly under- stood as it was by the trader and trapper from 1830 to 1840."
The language of these roving traders and solitary trappers was a strange medley of French, Spanish, English and Indian dialect. Their dress was fash- ioned after the Indian costume-buckskin hunting shirt and leggings-as being better adapted to the rough ways of the wilderness and more serviceable than clothing brought from "the States." The trapper's outfit consisted of a number of traps, an ax, a hunting knife, a horse and saddle, a few simple cooking utensils and the inevitable rifle. Sometimes he carried a small stock of sugar and coffee, but quite often the only provisions taken into the wilds were a little salt and a sack of flour. If he followed the streams, a canoe took the place of the horse
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and saddle. His dwelling was a rude hut, on the bank of some creek or river, but he often slept at night with a buffalo robe for a bed, his saddle or a pack of skins for a pillow, and the sky as his only shelter. Such men were known as "free trappers." The "free trader" was a similar character, only his outfit con- sisted chiefly of a small stock of trinkets, bright colored cloth, 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 their stock of goods was exhausted.
MANUEL LISA
One of the first men to engage in the fur trade in the Missouri River country, after Louisiana became the property of the United States, was Manuel Lisa. He was born in Cuba of Spanish parents, September 8, 1772, but soon afterward came with his parents to New Orleans. About 1790 he ascended the Mississippi River to St. Louis, where he became interested in the fur trade. In 1800 he secured from the Spanish authorities the exclusive right to trade with the Osage Indians on the Osage River. Here he quickly came into competition with the Chouteaus, who had controlled the Osage trade for fully twenty years. In 1802 he organized a company in opposition to the Chouteaus, but the members could not agree and it was soon disbanded.
Lisa then formed the firm of Lisa, Menard & Morrison for the purpose of trading with the Indians on the Upper Missouri. There is a story to the effect that in 1805 he visited the spot where the Town of Bellevue, Neb., now stands and gave the place its name by exclaiming "Bellevue !" a Spanish term, meaning "a beautiful view." Some writers assert that he established a trading post there at that time, but Chittenden, who is regarded as one of the best authorities on the subject of the American fur trade, says this is a mistake. It is certain, however, that in 1807 he went up the Missouri as far as the mouth of the Big- horn, where he established a post. The next year he returned to St. Louis and was the moving spirit in the organization of the Missouri Fur Company. He continued in the fur trade and made annual trips up the Missouri until the year before his death, which occurred at St. Louis on August 12, 1820. He was twice married to women of his own people and also had an Omaha wife, his marriage to the Indian woman having been made purely for commercial purposes. His second white wife, who was Mary Hempstead Keeney-a daughter of Stephen Hempstead and widow of John Keeney-spent the winter of 1819-20 at her husband's trading post, a short distance above the present City of Omaha, and is believed to have been the first white woman in Nebraska. She died at Galena, Ill., September 3, 1869.
Of Manuel Lisa it has been said: "In boldness of enterprise, persistency of purpose and in restless energy, he was a fair representative of the Spaniard of the days of Cortez. He was a man of great ability, a masterly judge of men, thoroughly experienced in the Indian trade and native customs, intensely active in his work, yet withal a perfect enigma of character which his contemporaries were never able to solve."
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THE MISSOURI FUR COMPANY
A few years after the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the American fur traders saw that if they were to compete successfully with the British traders. of the Hudson's Bay and Mackinaw companies and the French representatives of the North-West Company, some organization was necessary. The first fur company organized in the United States was the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, though the "St. Louis" part of the title was dropped soon after the organization began business. The original members of the company were Manuel Lisa, Benjamin Wilkinson, Pierre and Auguste Chouteau, William Clark, Reuben Lewis, Pierre Menard, William Morrison, Andrew Henry, Sylvester Labadie and Dennis Fitz Hugh. The capital stock of the company was $17,000, a sum hardly sufficient for the successful competition with the Hudson's Bay and North-West companies, a fact that the projectors were to learn at some cost later.
The company succeeded to the business of Lisa, Menard & Morrison and began trading with the Indians of the Upper Missouri country, with the post at the mouth of the Bighorn as the center of operations. It did not take long for Lisa to find out that the business in this section was not likely to be as profit- able as had been anticipated and at his suggestion the company withdrew the posts on the upper river and concentrated the trade at Fort Lisa. This post was established about 1811 or 1812. It was located some five or six miles below old Council Bluff, where Lewis and Clark held their council with the Indians in 1804, and commanded the trade of the Omaha, Otoe, Pawnee and other Indian tribes. From the time of its establishment until about 1823 it was the most important trading post on the Missouri.
About the time that Fort Lisa was built the Missouri Fur Company was reorganized and Manuel Lisa became a more prominent figure in directing its affairs. In June, 1813, he was appointed by the United States sub-agent for all the Indian tribes along the Missouri River, above the mouth of the Kansas. War had just been declared against Great Britain and the Government felt that Lisa could do more than any other man to keep the Indians from forming an alliance with the British. In this he succeeded beyond all expectations. He not only secured pledges of loyalty and friendship from all the chiefs, but even went so far as to organize war parties against some of the hostile tribes farther to the east. In 1817 he resigned his position as sub-agent to become president of the Missouri Fur Company. After Lisa's death in 1820 the company gradually declined and a few years later discontinued operations altogether.
THE 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. For the Northwest trade, Mr. Astor adopted the name of the Pacific Fur Company, which Chittenden says "was in reality only the American Fur Company with a specific name applied to a specific locality."
A spirited rivalry soon commenced between the American and Missouri Fur. companies. In the spring of 1811 the former sent Wilson Price Hunt with an
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expedition up the Missouri to establish trading posts, while Alexander McKay, Donald McKenzie, David and Robert Stuart went with a party on a vessel around Cape Horn to found a settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Mis- souri Fur Company was watching Hunt's movements and about three weeks after he started up the Missouri Manuel Lisa, with twenty-six well armed men and a long keel boat with swivel gun in the bow, set out in pursuit. He overtook Hunt a short distance above the mouth of the Niobrara River and traveled with him through the Sioux country, ostensibly for protection, but really to see that the American Fur Company opened no trading posts in that region.
In the meantime Ramsey Crooks and Robert Mclellan had established a post near the mouth of the Papillion Creek, not far from where the Town of Bellevue was afterward located. Some writers say this post was founded as early as 1807. In the spring of 1811 Mclellan joined Hunt's expedition at Nadowa and Crooks joined it at Fort Osage. Their post was then turned over to the American Fur Company, which placed Francis DeRoin in charge. When Hunt arrived in the neighborhood of the present City of Omaha, Crooks went over to the Platte River to close up his business with the Otoe Indians. He was accompanied by a Mr. Bradbury, an English naturalist, and the two men rejoined the expedition at the Omaha village.
There is a conflict of authorities regarding the trading post at Bellevue, which was no doubt the legitimate successor of the post established by Crooks & McLellan. Sorensen's "History of Omaha" says Francis DeRoin "was suc- ceeded by Joseph Robidoux, who was widely known throughout the Missouri Valley and all over the western country. He was generally known as 'Old Joe,' and in later years he founded the City of St. Joseph, Mo. John Cabanne was the successor of Robidoux and held the position of trader at Bellevue from 1816 to 1823, when he was superseded by Col. Peter A. Sarpy."
Chittenden, in his "History of the American Fur Trade," says: "Cabanne's post was located near the site of old Rockport, nine or ten miles (by land-) above the Union Pacific bridge at Omaha and six or seven miles below Fort Calhoun. It was established between 1822 and 1826 for the American Fur Company by John P. Cabanne, who remained in charge until 1833, when he had to leave the country on account of the Leclerc affair. Pilcher succeeded him, and the post was later moved down to Bellevue."
In another place the same writer says: "Fontenelle & Drips apparently bought Pilcher's post and established it in their own name, which it retained for many years. At a date between 1830 and 1840, which is not exactly known, the American Fur Company moved to Bellevue from Cabanne's post some distance above and established a new post there under P. A. Sarpy. The Indian agency of John Dougherty was also located near there about the same time. The agency was at Côte a Quesnelle, just above the American Fur Company post."
Chittenden is evidently mistaken as to the date of the establishment of the Indian agency at Bellevue. Fort Calhoun was evacuated as a military post in June, 1827, and the agency was removed from that place to Bellevue some three or four years before the fort was abandoned, and Peter A. Sarpy's biographer says he succeeded Cabanne as manager of the American Fur Company's post at Bellevue about 1824.
After the organization of the American Fur Company, it was not long until
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it controlled by far the larger part of the trade in the Missouri Valley and the Northwest. When a free trader could not be crushed by opposition, Mr. Astor would buy him out and then give him a lucrative position as agent or factor. Among those who thus became associated with the company were: Ramsey Crooks, Robert Mclellan, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Kenneth Mckenzie, William Laidlaw, Alexander Culbertson, David Mitchell, James A. Hamilton, John P. Cabanne, Daniel Lamont, Lucien Fontenelle, Andrew Drips, Joseph Robidoux, Charles Larpenteur, Thomas L. and Peter A. Sarpy, and a number of others, all of whom understood the fur trade and were well known to the Indians.
There were a few independent traders, however, who refused to be absorbed by the American Fur Company. Up to the time of the Civil war the remains of an old fort could be plainly traced on the block bounded by Ninth Street, Capitol Avenue, Tenth and Dodge streets in the City of Omaha. Some thought these remains were those of a defensive work erected by the Otoe Indians and others insisted they showed the location of old Fort Croghan. Father De Smet, the Jesuit missionary, and Joseph La Barge, an early Missouri River pilot, say that Fort Croghan was located on Cow Island. Under date of December 9, 1867, Father De Smet wrote from St. Louis to A. D. Jones, secretary of the Omaha Old Settlers' Association : "A noted trader by the name of T. B. Roye had a trading post from 1825 to 1828 established on the Omaha plateau, and may be the first white man who built the first cabin on the plateau where now stands the flourishing City of Omaha."
Some authorities give the name of this trader as J. B. Royce. It is not certain why he gave up his post at this point and nothing can be learned of his subsequent history. During the war the United States had a corral on the block where the old post was located and all traces of it were obliterated.
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