USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 7
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On the east bank of the Missouri, nearly opposite the trading post above mentioned, were the remains of another old fortification. When Mr. Jones wrote to Father De Smet, making inquiry about the ruins in Omaha, he also inquired about this old relic. In reply Father De Smet said: "The remains alluded to must be the site of the old trading post of Mr. Heart (Hart). When it was in existence the Missouri River ran up to the trading post. In 1832 the river left it, and since that time it goes by the name of Heart's cut-off, leaving a large lake above Council Bluff City."
Besides these two independent trading posts, several members of the Chouteau family continued to trade with the Kansas and Osage Indians. In 1819 Pratte & Vasquez, with a capital of $7,000, established a post at Blackbird Hill, nearly opposite the present Town of Onawa, Iowa. Robidoux & Papin had a post at the mouth of the Nishnabatona. Their capital was $12,000 and for several years they commanded a good trade with the Otoe, Osage and Pawnee Indians, as well as some of the Iowa tribes. What was known as the Ponca Post was situated a short distance below the mouth of the Niobrara, where a post was later established by the Columbia Fur Company, and there were a few smaller posts scattered along the Missouri at various points.
PETER A. SARPY
For thirty years or more no man wielded a greater influence upon the Indian tribes of Eastern Nebraska than Peter A. Sarpy. He was born in 1804 and it is
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said that his father, Berald Sarpy, was the first man to attempt the navigation of the Missouri River with a keel-boat. Being the son of an adventurer, it was natural that Peter should become an adventurer. His family was related to the Chouteaus and he was educated in New Orleans. Two of his brothers were engaged in the fur trade-John B. as a free trader and Thomas L. as an attache of the American Fur Company. In 1823, when only about nineteen years of age, Peter came to Nebraska as a clerk under John P. Cabanne, and about a year later was appointed manager of the American Fur Company's post at Bellevue. Not long after his appointment to this position he established another trading post on the Iowa side of the river called "Traders' Point." This was intended for the accommodation of the white people, the post at Bellevue being devoted exclusively to the Indian trade. Some years later the Missouri shifted its course-a trick for which it was noted in early days-and almost washed the post at Traders' Point into the river. It was then abandoned and a new post, called St. Mary, was established about four miles farther down the river in 1853. In that year Mr. Sarpy established flat boat ferries across the Elkhorn River, near where Elkhorn City now stands, and across the Loup Fork, near the present City of Columbus, for the accommodation of emigrants and the Pawnee Indians.
Mr. Sarpy was not a large man, but was well knit and of great physical endurance. He was a great friend of the Omaha Indians, who called him the "white chief," and he was always welcome in their wigwams. He married an Omaha woman named Ni-co-mi, who saved his life on several occasions when he was threatened by unfriendly Indians. His dark complexion showed his French blood and he possessed in a marked degree that excitable disposition so common among the French people. A correspondent signing himself "Duncan," related the following story of Mr. Sarpy in the Omaha Herald some years ago :
It seems that several persons, one of them a stranger, were gathered in the large room of the Bellevue trading house one evening in 1855, and were engaged in conversation of a general nature. Mr. Sarpy denounced the methods of the white men in trading with the Indians and declared that most of the treaties made by representatives of the United States with the Indian tribes were one-sided, and that the Government had taken the lands of the natives without giving them a fair price. To this the stranger replied :
"All this talk about the Indians as good, brave and intelligent may be to the interest of you traders, who have become rich by exchanging your gewgaws for their valuable furs and buffalo robes, but I have lived among them, too, and I know them to be a lying, thieving, treacherous race, incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, and the sooner they are exterminated the better it will be for the country."
This speech aroused the indignation of the trader, who walked up to the stranger and said in an excited tone of voice: "Do you know who I am, sir? I am Peter A. Sarpy, the old horse on the sand bar, sir. If you want to fight, I am your man, sir; I can whip the devil, sir; if you want satisfaction, sir, choose your weapons-bowie knife, shot gun or revolver, sir; I am your man, sir."
He then whipped out his revolver, which he always carried, fired and ex- tinguished the candle about ten feet distant, leaving the room in total darkness. When the candle was re-lighted it was discovered that the offending stranger
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had made his escape. This incident goes to show the character of Mr. Sarpy, who, although kind at heart, was always ready to resent an insult.
In 1854 he was a member of the town company that laid out the Town of Bellevue. With Stephen Decatur and others he laid out the Town of Decatur, where there had once been a trading post. In 1862 he removed to Plattsmouth, Neb., where he died on June 4, 1865. In his will he left an annuity of $200 to his Indian wife, which was regularly paid as long as she lived. Sarpy County was named in his honor.
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR COMPANY
William H. Ashley, a young Virginian, went to St. Louis in 1802 and a few years later became interested in the fur trade. In 1822 he formed a partnership with Andrew Henry, one of the members of the original Missouri Fur Com- pany, for the purpose of trading with the Indians along the Rocky Mountains. The firm sent two boats up the Missouri to the mouth of the Yellowstone, but met with such determined opposition from the Indians that several men were killed and about half the goods taken by the savages. The name of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company was then adopted and three more attempts were made to open trade with the Indians on the upper waters of the Missouri, but without success. In 1826 Ashley and Henry sold out to Jedediah S. Smith, William L. Sublette and David E. Jackson. The new Rocky Mountain Fur Company car- ried on a successful business for about five years. Smith died in 1831, Jackson withdrew from the company, and Sublette then formed a partnership with Robert Campbell, a long time friend, and the two operated on the Upper Mis- souri and Platte rivers. For several years Sublette & Campbell were the strong- est competitors of the American Fur Company. Then Campbell died and Sub- lette sold out to the Astor interests.
TIIE COLUMBIA FUR COMPANY
About the time that Ashley and Henry formed their partnership in 1822, Joseph Renville, an old British trader who had been in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, organized the Columbia Fur Company, for the purpose of trading in the Columbia River country. He established several posts in the Mandan Indian territory and farther up the Missouri and for a few years was the most formidable competitor of the American Fur Company. One of his posts was near the mouth of the Niobrara and another was located a few miles below Fort Calhoun. The Columbia and American companies were consolidated in July, 1827, another instance of the methods employed by Mr. Astor to overcome competition and extend his power and trade.
With the extinction of the Rocky Mountain and Columbia companies, the American Fur Company acquired a complete monopoly of the trade along the Missouri River, with the possible exception of a free trader here and there, who could hardly be considered as a competitor. The post at Bellevue then became the most important trading point on the river. Indians came for hundreds of miles to the agency and brought their peltries to exchange for the white man's goods. This trade continued until after the negotiations of the
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treaty of March 16, 1854, and the removal of the Omaha Indians to their reservation farther up the Missouri River.
MARKETING THE FURS
For many years the City of St. Louis was the center of the fur trade. Once a year, sometimes oftener, the furs at the various trading posts were made into packs or bales to be taken down the Missouri to market. Each bale weighed about one hundred pounds and contained 10 buffalo robes, 14 bear skins, 60 otter, 80 beaver or raccoon, 120 fox, or 600 muskrat skins, the skins of different animals never being mixed in the pack. When the bales were ready they were loaded upon a pirogue or a keel-boat and started down the river.
There was an element of romance in the early navigation of the Missouri by the fur traders. The most common craft was the canoe, which was used chiefly in local traffic, or on journeys where speed was of more importance than capacity. But the canoe of the fur trader was not the thin, highly polished veneer affair, with cushioned seats, used by the modern clubman. It was made by hollowing out a log to a thin shell, pointed at the bow, and was generally referred to as a "dug out." Sometimes two canoes would be lashed together and a raft built on top, capable of carrying several bales of furs.
Next in importance was the pirogue, which was either a large dug-out or a flat-bottomed boat with no keel. It was used for carrying larger cargoes than could be carried in the ordinary canoe and in waters too shallow for the keel-boat. During the prosperous days of the fur traders, it was no unusual sight to see a fleet of twenty or more pirogues descending the Missouri laden with furs for the warehouses at St. Louis.
The keel-boat was a more pretentious craft, measuring from fifty to seventy- five feet in length and fifteen to eighteen feet wide, with a cabin and sail. Where the water was not too deep, it was propelled by long poles, ten or a dozen voyageurs walking along each side, each with a pole reaching to the bottom of the river, pushing the boat forward. In deep water oars were used, or a long line called a cordelle would be passed to the bank, where it would be seized by a number of men who pulled the boat onward, those on the boat keeping it from striking the bank with their poles. From twelve to fifteen miles up stream was a good day's journey for a keel-boat. On the downward trip, where the current was favorable, twenty-five miles could be made.
Then there was the "bull-boat," a craft made of buffalo or elk skins sewed together and stretched over a frame work of light poles. This kind of boat was usually twenty-five or thirty feet long, ten or twelve feet wide, and about twenty inches in depth. A good bull-boat had a carrying capacity of from two to three tons. Owing to the fact that it drew but little water it was a favorite in shallow streams like the Platte River.
After the organization of the great fur companies the steamboat came into use and made annual trips up the river with provisions for the employees and goods for the Indian trade. On the return a cargo of furs would be taken on at the trading posts along the river. While none of the Missouri River steamboats drew more than four or five feet of water, all being of the flat-bottomed type, some of them were rather commodious in their appointments and carried
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passengers as well as freight. With the introduction of the steamboat the light-hearted voyageur, with his picturesque garb, who always lightened his labor with song, disappeared, and the fur trade was robbed of much of its romance.
SMUGGLING LIQUOR TO THE INDIANS
Shortly after the great fur companies began their extensive operations Congress passed an act forbidding the sale of liquor to the Indians. The Canadian fur companies were not restricted by such legislation and the United States traders saw that they were likely to be placed at a disadvantage in the Indian trade. They therefore resorted to all sorts of tricks to get "fire water" up the Missouri to their trading posts. In 1843 the Omega, Capt. Joseph A. Sire master, Joseph La Barge, pilot, was sent up the river by the American Fur Company. She carried as a passenger the naturalist Audubon, who was provided with a permit authorizing him to carry with him a quantity of liquor for himself and the members of his party.
Bellevue was the last point where a rigid investigation was likely to be made. Upon arriving there Captain Sire was rejoiced to learn that the Indian agent was absent. He hurriedly discharged his freight for the post and proceeded on up the river, felicitating himself that the danger was past. About 9 o'clock that evening he tied up, not far from where the City of Omaha now stands, but resumed his voyage at daylight. In leaving his post the agent had delegated the duty of making the inspection to a Captain Burgwin, who happened to be encamped with a detachment of troops some distance up the river. The sudden departure of the Omega from Bellevue awakened him to a realization of the fact that he had been somewhat remiss in his duty and he sent a few dragoons under a lieutenant to overtake and arrest the progress of the boat until an in- spection could be made. The boat was hardly under way the next morning when the lieutenant and his dragoons appeared on the bank and two rifle shots were fired across the bow. The boat landed and the lieutenant presented a note from Captain Burgwin stating that his orders required him to inspect the boat.
Consternation reigned on the Omega, but Mr. Audubon came to the rescue. He showed his permit to carry on the boat a certain quantity of liquor, and expressed the desire to visit Captain Burgwin in his camp. Borrowing a horse from one of the dragoons, while another acted as escort, the naturalist set out for the camp, which was some four miles distant. Two hours were spent in conversation with Captain Burgwin and in shooting some birds about the camp. At the end of that time the captain and his guest set out for the boat.
Meantime Captain Sire and his crew had not been idle. The hold of the Omega was divided by a bulkhead running lengthwise, on either side of which was a narrow tramway to facilitate the handling of freight. At the bow of the boat the tramway passed around the end of the bulkhead. All the liquor was loaded on the little cars on one side of the bulkhead, after which the men sat down to await the arrival of the inspector. When Captain Burgwin arrived he was hospitably received. Drinks and dinner were served before the inspection was commenced. It was dark in the hold and Captain Sire was careful to provide but a single candle. That side of the hold in which there was no liquor was first examined, when they came on deck and crossed over to the other side. Some
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little delay occurred, during which the men in the hold swiftly and noiselessly pushed the cars bearing the casks around the end of the bulkhead into that side of the hold that had already been inspected. The other compartment was then examined, Captire Sire insisting upon the most thorough examination, and Captain Burgwin expressed himself as entirely satisfied there was no liquor on the boat except that authorized by Mr. Audubon's permit. The Omega then proceeded on her way.
The next year Captain Sire and Pilot La Barge passed up the river in charge of the Nimrod, with supplies for the American Fur Company's posts. At that time the Indian agent at Bellevue was a Mr. Miller, who had formerly been a Methodist minister, and who had a wholesome prejudice against whisky in addi- tion to his desire to perform his official duty according to instructions. Captain Sire knew that this man was carefully examining every craft that went up the Missouri and decided to outwit him by placing kegs of liquor in barrels of flour, which were then marked "P. A. S.," as though consigned to Peter A. Sarpy at Bellevue. The Nimrod had no sooner tied up at the Bellevue landing than the barrels of flour were rolled ashore and deposited in the company's ware- house. Mr. Miller then went on board and examined every nook and corner of the vessel. Finding nothing of a contraband nature, he gave the captain permis- sion to proceed on his voyage.
But this year Captain Sire was in no hurry and announced his intention of remaining at Bellevue until the following morning. Sire's reputation as a smuggler was by this time well known ,and the uncalled for delay aroused Mil- ler's suspicions. He therefore placed a man on watch, with instructions to report immediately any unusual action on the boat during the night. About midnight, when everything was quiet and the sentinel had dropped off to sleep, there was suddenly developed a great activity on the part of the Nimrod's crew. The bar- rels of flour were hastily reloaded and the guard awakened to discover that the boat was under a full head of steam. He at once gave the signal, but the mis- chief had been done. La Barge seized an ax and cut the line that held the boat to the landing, shouting at the same time to the men: "Get aboard, quick! The line has parted!"
The boat dropped out into the current and the engineer crowded on all steam just as the agent appeared on the wharf and wanted to know the reason for this unwarranted proceeding. "Of, the line broke," said La Barge, "and as it was so near daylight we thought it was not worth while to tie up again." As a matter of fact it was not quite 3 o'clock, and the agent could not understand how the engineer happened to have steam up at that hour. Nor did he place credit in La Barge's statement that the line had parted. He did not believe in such coinci- dences as a broken hawser and a full head of steam at 3 A. M., and he became more skeptical when he discovered that Mr. Sarpy's flour had been reloaded. His chagrin over the way he had been deceived was so great that he reported the Nimrod to the United States authorities. Some difficulty followed and the Government threatened to revoke the fur company's license, but the whisky reached its destination and was sold to the Indians at the usual profit.
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GOVERNMENT EXPEDITIONS
While the traders, trappers and agents of the great fur companies were navi- gating the Missouri in their canoes, pirogues and keel-boats, or roaming over the plains westward to the Rocky Mountains, the United States Government sent several expeditions into the West, some of which passed through Nebraska.
In 1819 General Atkinson passed up the Missouri with what was known as the "Yellowstone Expedition." One result of this movement was the establish- ment of the military post a few miles above the present City of Omaha. It was successively known as "Camp Missouri," "Fort Atkinson" and "Fort Calhoun," and was located near the site of the present Village of Fort Calhoun, in Washing- ton County, Nebraska. The post was occupied for about eight years, chiefly by detachments of the Sixth United States Infantry, but, "owing to the unhealthi- ness of the place and other considerations," it was abandoned on June 27, 1827, the soldiers quartered there going to Jefferson Barracks.
The same year ( 1819) Maj. Stephen H. Long led an expedition from Pitts- burgh, Pa., to the Rocky Mountains, under orders of John C. Calhoun, then secretary of war. The object of the expedition was topographical. Major Long's steamboat, the Western Engineer, reached the mouth of the Big Nemaha early in September. On the 15th he passed the mouth of the Platte River and two days later tied up at Fort Lisa, the trading post of the Missouri Fur Company, a few miles above where Omaha is now situated. The Western Engineer was the first steamboat to ascend the Missouri as far as Omaha. At Fort Lisa Major Long went into winter quarters. During the winter councils were held and friendly relations established with a number of Indian tribes. In the summer of 1820 Long explored the valleys of the Elkhorn and Platte rivers. His report was published in 1823.
Capt. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, with eighteen men, passed through Nebraska in May, 1832, over the route known as the "Oregon Trail." He was accompanied to the Rocky Mountains by William L. Sublette's company of trappers and traders, who acted as guides to the expedition. Wyeth led a second expedition over the same route in 1834.
In 1835 Col. Henry Dodge led an expedition from Fort Leavenworth up the Platte Valley, following the south fork to the Rocky Mountains. The two expedi- ditions of Col. John C. Fremont, in 1842 and 1843, passed through the same region, with Kit Carson as guide. These expeditions gave to the people of the United States official information concerning the country west of the Missouri River.
Vol. 1-4
CHAPTER V
THE MORMON EMIGRATION
MORMONS THE FIRST WHITE SETTLERS IN NEBRASKA- GENERAL HISTORY OF THE MORMON CHURCH-THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS AND TRIALS-ASSASSINATION OF JOSEPH SMITH-THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT-MORMON BATTALION-COUNCIL WITH THE OMAHA INDIANS-BIG ELK'S SPEECH-WINTER QUARTERS AT FLORENCE-PESTILENCE-EXPULSION FROM THE INDIAN LANDS-BRIGHAM YOUNG'S REVELATION-SALT LAKE VALLEY-THE "MORMON TRAIL"-ITS INFLU- ENCE ON OMAHA AND VICINITY --- TIIE SCARE OF 1857-58-JOHNSTON'S EXPEDI- TION.
The story of the Mormon emigration is closely identified with the history of Omaha and Douglas County, for the reason that the first white settlements within the limits of the present State of Nebraska were those made by the Mormons in 1846. In connection with the story of that emigration, although not an essential part of Omaha's history, it may be of interest to the reader to know something in general of this peculiar sect.
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, or, more properly speak- ing, the "Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints," was born at Sharon, Vt., in December, 1805. His mother took a deep interest in religious subjects, was somewhat visionary at times, and it is said she predicted that a prophet would come out of her family. In 1816 the family removed to Palmyra, N. Y., where Joseph acquired a meager education. In the spring of 1820 a great religious revival was conducted at Palmyra. Joseph had inherited from his mother a fond- ness for all subjects of a supernatural character, and about the close of the revival meetings announced that he had had a vision, in which he "saw two per- sonages above me in the air. They told me to join no denomination, for all their creeds are an abomination in the sight of the Lord."
On September 21, 1823, he had his second vision, when an angel appeared to him and revealed the hiding place of the golden plates upon which was written the history of the ancient peoples of America. The next day he went, as the angel directed him, to the hill of Cumorrah, near Manchester, N. Y., and saw the plates, but the angel would not let him take them away. Each year there- after for three years, on the 22d of September, he went to the place and saw the plates, but each time the angel informed him that the hour for their removal had not yet arrived. On the occasion of his fourth annual visit, September 22, 1827, he was given permission to take the plates and, as they were written in a strange language, he was endowed with the supernatural power of translating
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their contents into English. More than two years were spent in this work, but in the spring of 1830 the "Book of Mormon" was published.
Converts to the new faith were not wanting and a colony was established at Kirtland, Ohio. There Smith had a "revelation" to go to Independence, Mo., and build a temple. But the Mormons were not popular in Independence and in the fall of 1833 they were driven out. They took refuge in what is now Caldwell County, Mo., where they founded the Town of Far West and again began the erection of a temple. Here, also, they became unpopular with the residents and Governor Boggs issued a proclamation ordering them out of the state. They were expelled by force in the fall of 1838 and took refuge at Nauvoo, Ill., which city they founded.
About this time eight shiploads of Mormon converts arrived from Europe. The political leaders in Illinois saw that the Mormons were likely to become a power in public affairs and granted Smith a charter for the Town of Nauvoo that conferred extravagant and dangerous power upon the municipal officials. An lowa writer says: "Under this charter Nauvoo became a breeding place for outlaws, and probably the true story of all the outrages committed by these out- laws will never be told. Fugitives from justice sought refuge there, and if anyone should be arrested witnesses could always be found to prove an 'alibi.'"
In 1842 Governor Boggs was shot and seriously wounded and the attempted assassination was charged against the Mormons. The opposition thus started continued until in January, 1845, the Illinois Legislature revoked the Nauvoo charter. In the meantime Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, had been arrested and confined in the jail at Carthage, 111., where they were killed by a mob on the night of June 27, 1844. The loss of their leader and the determined opposition of the people of Illinois determined the Mormons to seek a more congenial cli- mate. Brigham Young was chosen as the head of the church, and in the spring of 1846 they began their migration westward.
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