| Born in Culpeper Co.,
Virginia, Joshua moved with his family to
Lexington, Kentucky in 1793. While there,
he was apprenticed to his sister
Margaret's husband Hiram Shaw who ran a
hatter's shop situated on the corner of
Main and Broadway. There he learned the
hatter's trade, but after his father's
death in 1810, Joshua went to Nashville
where he stayed three years and became
affiliated with the merchant John Lowry. While his brothers
engaged in the war of 1812, Joshua went
to St. Louis where he went into the
mercantile business with N.S. Anderson,
and after his death, Colonel Thomas
Riddick. With this knowlege Joshua joined
up with the Missouri Fur Company which
engaged in fur trade in the upper
Missouri River area. After the death of
its president, Manuel Lisa, Joshua took
over the company which became bankrupt
about five years later after much of
their supplies had been raided and
hostilities had made trade difficult.
Joshua
then received appointments as agent and
sub-agent to the Indians, and after the
death of General William Clark in 1838,
was appointed by President Van Buren to
succeed him in the office of
Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St.
Louis. Joshua died on 05 Jun 1843 in St.
Louis. Almost fifty years later, a
handful of interesting articles appeared
in two St. Louis newspapers concerning
him and a casket that had been found.
Note:
Joshua was first buried, as requested in
his will, at the Episcopal cemetery, but
when the Christ Church cemetery was
closed, Virginia (Riddick) Brooks, widow
of Edward, authorized Joshua's remains to
be removed to the Brooks plot in
Bellefontaine, which is where his remains
are today marked by a headstone honoring
his achievements.
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