The exclusive trade with the Indians of the Missouri, claimed by the house of Maxent, Laclede & Co., under their license from Gov. Kerlerec in 1762, came to an end with the establishment of the Spanish authority in 1770, when the trade was opened to all who chose to embark in it. In the year 1773 there were some six or eight merchants in St. Louis then engaged in it. As much of the peltries brought to the place by the traders were more or less damaged through the neglect of their owners in properly caring fro them, and as they were becoming almost the only circulating medium of the country, there being but very little coin in the country, and it in the hands of the fortunate few, the merchants united in a petition to Gov. Cruzat, for the purpose of creating some regulations on the subject which would conduce to the mutual interest of both parties, merchant and trader, in which they present their views as to the rules they deemed it expedient to adopt for the benefit of all concerned.

Source: Annals of St. Louis in its Early Days Under the French & Spanish Dominations, by Frederic L. Billon, St. Louis, 1886.

Among the many picturesque and dashing Western characters who have either lived at St. Louis or had relations with it, and whose adventures and exploits illustrate the early history of the Far West, there is none mare picturesque and dashing than William H. Ashley. Without being inferior to any in the game and manly qualities for which they were all distinguished, he was superior to most of them in education and the acquirements and manners of polite society; he was as accomplished a gentleman in the drawing-room as he was a fearless explorer and fighter in the Rocky Mountains and it is not strange, therefore, that he has come to be recognized as chief among the class which embraced the Subletts, Bridger, Campbell, Smith and Fitzpatrick.

Ashley was a Virginian, born in Powhattan County, in that State, in 1785, and, like many others of the youth of the "Old Dominion" in that day, came to Missouri in quest of a fortune. He went to St. Genevieve in 1803, and engaged in the manufacture of saltpetre in Washington County. After a time he became a merchant, and then surveyor under General William Rector, the first surveyor general of Missouri, and in 1819 made his home in St. Louis. He owned a place of eight acres outside of the city on the north, near what is now the intersection of Broadway and Biddle Street, where he built a spacious and stately mansion for those times, and which he made the seat of a freehanded hospitality. His experience as surveyor had given him information about valuable lands in the territory, and his name appears frequently in the records of the times as purchaser of property outside of the city. It is mentioned as a proof of his high honor, and also as a conspicuous event in the history of the times, that a wealthy Englishman, William Stokes, who came to St. Louis in 1819 to make investments, deposited with Ashley $60,000, to be invested at his discretion. His popular manners and affable bearing, together with his capacity for business, made him influential in the field of politics, and he was chosen Lieutenant-Governor in the first election held in the State after its admission to the Union. Far several years he was engaged in the fur trade, the most profitable as well as the most respectable business of that day, and in the prosecution of the business he exhibited all the enterprise, courage, daring and control over men which it demanded, and laid the foundation of the liberal fortune which afforded him leisure for public affairs and social enjoyments.

When Ashley embarked in the fur trade, the American Fur Company was already established in the region east of the Rocky Mountains, doing an extensive business and owning forts, at which it was accustomed to hold annual gatherings for the sale of goads and supplies and the purchase of skins from the Indians, hunters and trappers. These meetings were important events, and the company had turned them to such good account in establishing friendly relations with the tribes and attaching the white trappers to its fortunes that it seemed like a hopeless task for an opponent to enter the field against it. But Ashley proved to be an antagonist able to hold his own in a contest even with this powerful company; he was as generous as he was chivalric, and was singularly successful in attracting choice young spirits to his standard, for he made their fortunes as well as his own. All the Subletts - Captain William L. and his three brothers were associated with him, and so also were Robert Campbell, Bridger and Fitzpatrick. His first venture in the business was not only a failure, but a disaster as well. He had obtained a first-class barge at St. Louis, loaded it with a stock of goods, including guns and ammunition, and carrying a full complement of men, the boat being in charge of Joseph Labarge, and Ashley himself being in charge of the enterprise. All went smoothly until they reached the region inhabited by the Arrickaree Indians, who received the party with the usual signs of friendship and desired to trade. Ashley concluded to purchase horses from them and divide his force, sending one party with pack-horses direct overland to a point several hundred miles above on the river, while the other party continued to proceed more slowly on the boat. But the treacherous savages had no sooner supplied themselves with weapons than they turned them against the whites, making an attack, unexpected and without warning, upon the land party as it was getting ready to start. Ashley and his men bravely defended themselves, but they were taken at a disadvantage; several were killed and others wounded, and the Indians captured their goods, packs, and the very horses which they had sold them a few days before. At the beginning of the fight, and while the Indians were preparing to seize the barge, Captain Labarge cut the rope and pushed off, and in a few minutes the rapid current bore the craft out of reach. Ashley and the survivors of the land party managed to fight their way against the savages and intercept the boat same distance below and return with it to St. Louis. Notwithstanding this inauspicious and disheartening beginning, Ashley organized a second expedition and sent it out into the Green River country. It was fortunate enough to escape attack from the Indians, but the venture did not prove successful, and Ashley found his resources greatly exhausted by the two successive failures, with nothing to show far all his outlay and trouble. A man of tamer spirit would have withdrawn from the business and left the fur trade to the two great companies, the American and the Hudson Bay, which were already in the field, and whose supplies of men and means were practically unlimited. But Ashley was not made of tame material. He managed to send out another expedition, which was attended by a small measure of success. Another followed which yielded ample returns, and Ashley had the wisdom and self-control to retire on his fortune and turn the business over to his associates. His policy in the conduct of the trade differed from that of the two great companies with which he had to compete in avoiding all commercial relations with the Indians. He dealt exclusively with white trappers and hunters. These silent men were found all along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, pursuing their vocation of trapping beaver on the headwaters of the Missouri, Platte and Green Rivers, and Ashley's plan of business was to attract them to his headquarters, provide them with supplies and pay them for their year's service, and take their skins and furs once a year at the annual meeting. One of his achievements was the hauling of a cannon, with an ox-team, a distance of twelve hundred miles to his fort in the mountains, and mounting it as a weapon of defense against the Indians. When he drew out of the business with a generous fortune, the young men, Sublett, Campbell and others, whom he had taken into his service succeeded to it, organized the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and continued operations until they had met with as large a measure of success as their patron and friend had achieved.

In 1831 General Ashley was elected to Congress to fill the unexpired term of Spencer Pettis, killed in the duel with Biddle, and at the succeeding election was chosen for a full term,-and re-elected for a third term in 1834, making a congressional record of five years. His title of general, which is always associated with his name, comes from his appointment as brigadier-general in the Missouri militia. His first wife died in St. Louis in 1821, and he married Eliza B. Christy, daughter of William Christv, and after her death he married Mrs. Wilcox, widow of Dr. Wilcox, and daughter of Dr. Mass, of Howard County. He died at St. Louis in 1839, in his fifty-fourth year, and his body was taken on the steamboat "Booneville," Captain Joseph Labarge, to his farm on Lamine River, Cooper County, where he owned a tract of 20,000 acres. He left no children, and this land passed into other hands, but his solitary grave is pointed out in the burial reservation of one acre on a beautiful eminence in sight of the Missouri River. He is described by those who knew him as a man about five feet nine inches in height, and one hundred and thirty-five pounds in weight; thin face and prominent Grecian nose, with an attractive presence and pleasant manners. -D. M. GRISSOM.

Francis M. Benoit, a fur merchant, son of Louis Antoine Benoit and Marie Rouse Sumande, born in Quebec, in 1768, married Marie Catherine Sanguinet in St. Louis, Nov. 22, 1798. He died Oct. 21, 1819. Aged fifty-one years, leaving three sons and two daughters, and his widow Dec. 8, 1859, in her seventy-ninth year.

1. Francis, Jr., born 1799, died in Louisiana.
2. Louis A. (Condé), Aug. 13, 1803, and died Jan. 17, 1867, at sixty-four; first wife Miss Barton, two children; second, Miss Hackney, five children; third, Miss Wilson, eight children, fifteen in all.
3. Sanguinet, 1805, to Miss Dubois; separated.
4. Adeline, 1807, to Jas. M. Riley at Liberty, Sept. 20, 1831.
5. Amanda, 1809, to Cyrus Curtis, March 27, 1827.

Antoine Berard left his native France a young man with bright prospects before him to come to Louisiana, the El Dorado of North America, in pursuit of fortune, and one of many who soon feel victims in its pursuit to the deleterious effects of the climate, particularly upon Europeans at that early day of its settlement.

Antoine Berard, son of Jno. Bap. Berard, a merchant of Bordeau, and Antoinette Vallé, was born in the parish of St. Pierre in that city in the year 1740. He came like numberless others in search of wealth to New Orleans, and about the year 1768, following the footsteps of Laclede, a friend and fellow countryman, arrived in St. Louis and embarked in business. Being well educated and of fine business capacity he soon acquired prominence, and during the few years of his life he was quite successful and acquired property, when his days were suddenly cut short.

In the year 1774 he became the purchaser of the quarter block at the northwest corner of Main and Locust, with a small house of posts divided into four small rooms, his store, bed room, kitchen and stove room, nearly double the usual number of that day, where he had resided for a couple of years. He died on October 13, 1776, at the age of 36 years, at the house of Alexis P. Marie, at the southwest opposite corner, to which he had been removed for better nursing, and was interred in the cemetery grounds the following day.

His will, a brief one, was made on the 12th October, in the presence of Governor Cruzat, his friends Laclede, Sarpy and others. “He left his sister Genevieve, then living with her parents at Bordeaux, his sole heiress, and names his friens above to execute his last will and testament. His house was purchased by another young merchant not long in the place, Dominick Bargas, who had barely occupied it a couple years, when he, too, followed Berard to his last home, dying suddenly with apoplexy, on the night of July 18, 1779, at the age of 38 years, found dead in his bed the following morning. A somewhat singular coincidence regarding these two gentleman, both merchants from Europe, unmarried about the same age, and owners and residents

Was born near the city of Trent, in the Italian Tyrol, in 1780, and died in St.Louis, April 20, 1831, at the age of fifty-seven years. He served, at the age of seventeen years, in the Italian army which opposed Napoleon's invasion, and at the battle of Marengo received a sabre cut on the forehead, which marked him for life. In 1798 he came to the United States, and after a short stay in Philadelphia settled in Baltimore. In 1809 he removed to St. Louis with Rene Paul and engaged in the mercantile business. In 1811 he married Pelagie Chouteau, only daughter of Major Pierre Chouteau, Sr., one of the founders of the city. They had seven children, one of the daughters, Clara, becoming the wife of. Wm. L. Ewing, and mother of Wm. L. Ewing, Jr., who was mayor of the city from 1881 to 1885.

He formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and conducted a successful business for several years, and afterward, with Pierre Chouteau, Jr., John P. Cabanne and Bernard Pratte, became associated with John Jacob Astor in the American Fur Company. The business was very profitable, and Mr. Berthold, at the time of his death, was counted one of the wealthy citizens of St. Louis. He was well educated and accomplished and was held in high esteem for his elegant manners and his sterling uprightness. He was mster of several languages, and it is recorded of him that when Lafayette, with his staff of friends came to St. Louis, in 1825, Bartholomew Berthold sat at the banquet table and conversed with them all in their several tongues. His widow survived him forty-four years, dying in 1875, in her eighty-fifth year.

John P. Cabanné, pioneer, was born in 1773, at Pau, in the South of France, and died in St. Louis, in 1841. His father was Jean Cabanné, of Bordeaux, France, and his mother, whose maiden name was Duteil, was a sister of General Lucien Duteil, who was in Command of the republican forces at the siege of Toulon, and at whose house Napoleon stayed during the siege. In grateful remembrance of General Duteil's kindness to him, Napoleon bequeathed to the general five hundred thousand francs in his will, written at St. Helena. John P. Cabanné ,was educated and trained to mercantile pursuits in France, and in 1803 came to the United States with considerable capital. He first established his home at Charleston, South Carolina, and engaged in the sugar trade, which he conducted profitably for a year or more. Meeting with a disaster, occasioned by the loss at sea of two of his trading vessels, he then went to New Orleans and embarked in trade in that city.

In 1806 he came to St. Louis and engaged in the fur trade, which was then the principal business of this place. For many years he was interested in this trade with Bernard Pratt, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Antoine Chenie, Bartholomew Berthold, Manuel Lisa and others. For some years he was a member of the firm of Pratt, Chouteau & Co., and during this period spent much of his time in what was then called the Indian country. He amassed a large fortune and left his family a rich inheritance. He was one of the commissioners appointed to accept subscriptions of stock to the Bank of St. Louis, founded December 17, 1816. He was a member of the first Public School Board of St. Louis, was one of the incorporators of the city, and was foremost in all measures and enterprises designed to promote the advancement and progress of the town. So prominent was he as a business man and citizen that his death was universally regretted, and the utterances of the press and, of the public of that period gave expression to the feeling that the place which he occupied in the .community was one not easy to be filled. He married, in St. Louis, in 1807, Miss Julia Gratiot, daughter of Charles Gratiot, in his day, one of the leading citizens of' Missouri. Five sons and three daughters were born to them, all of whom lived and died in St. Louis, and they have numerous descendants who still reside in the city.

Gabriel Cerré, merchant, was born in Montreal, Canada, in the year 1733, and came to Kaskaskia a young man of twenty-two, about the year 1755. He married Miss Catherine Girard, a young lady of the place, daughter of Antoine Girard and Maria Lafontaine, in 1865, and here their four children were born.

Mr. Cerré was a resident of Kaskaskia about twenty-six years, engaged in active business until the year 1781, when with his wife and three children (then eldest then a married lady in Montreal) he moved to St. Louis, where he still continued in business for twenty-four additional years, until his death, April 4, 1805, having attained the age of seventy-two years. Mr. Cerré had pursued a successful business for fifty years and left a handsome fortune.

His wife, Mrs. Cerré, had died in St. Louis, July 31, 1800, five years before him, at the age of fifty years.
Their children were:

1. Marie Anne, born in 1766, was married at the age of fifteen years, on August 13, 1781, to Pierre Louis Pante, a young man of twenty, of Quebec, Canada, where and at Montreal she resided during her life.
2. Marie Therese, born November 26, 1769, was married on September 21, 1786, at the age of seventeen years, to Augst. Chouteau, of St. Louis, he then thirty-six years of age. She died August 14, 1842, aged seventy-two years and nine months.
3. Paschal Leon (the only son), born in 1771, married in St. Louis, February 13, 1797, to Marie Therese Lamy, only child of Michael Lamy. He died May 9, 1849, aged seventy-seven years. Mrs. Cerré, August 12, 1833.
4. Julia Cerré, born August 10, 1775, married November 16, 1795, at twenty, to Antoine Pierre Soulard, born in Rochefort, Aunis, France in 1766, aged twenty-nine years, formerly of the French navy, now the kings’ surveyor in Louisiana. Ant. P. Soulard died November 9, 1825, at fifty-nine years. Mrs. Soulard, May 9, 1845, at sixty-nine years

See also: Brief Biographical Sketch of Gabriel Cerré

The eldest son of Col. Augustus Chouteau, was born Oct. 21, 1792, in St. Louis, and was married June 10, 1810, to Miss Constance Sanguinet, daughter of Charles Sanguinet, Sr. He died about 1833-34 at the Indian Trading Post of his cousin, Augustus P. Chouteau, on the Verdigris branch of the Arkansas River, about five miles from Fort Gibson, in the then Cherokee, now Indian Territory, aged about 41 years.

His children were:
Augustus Rene, born in 1811, who married Miss Rebecca Sefton N ov. 23, 1836, and died without issue late in 1847, aged 36 years.
Edward A., born Dee. 26, 1814, who married Miss Elizabeth I. Christy August 8, 1849, and died Jany. 1, 1804, aged 59 years, leaving a son and two daughters. Virginia C., born June 16, 1816, married to Joseph C. Barlow March 8, 1836. She died Aug. 11, 1855, aged 39 years.

Was born in New Orleans, Oct. 10, 1758, and arrived in St. Louis in September, 1764, at the age of six years.

His earliest years of manhood, and a portion of his prime, were devoted to the Indian trade, in which he laid the foundation of his fortune. His trading post was at the head waters of the Osage river, in the region of country occupied by the Osage tribes, with which and the neighboring nations, the Kansas, Pawnees and others, his trade was chiefly confined, and over whom, from his conciliatory course, he had acquired great influence. They held him in great esteem and regarded him as their father, always calling him by that familiar title.

Some few years after we had received possession of the country, Major Chouteau, then about fifty years of age, abandoned the active pursuit of the Indian trade, and devoted his attention to other matters, dealing largely in landed property, through which he added materially to his acquisitions. Like his elder brother Auguste, he soon acquired prominence with the Americans, was appointed Major of the St. Louis battalion of militia, and held other positions, a member of the Town Council, Sub Indian-Agent for his old friends, the Osages, etc., etc.

Major Chouteau ,was twice married:
First. On July 26, 1783, to Pelagie Kersereau, who died Feb. 9, 1793, after ten years' marriage, at the age of 26 years, leaving four children, three sons and one daughter.

After a year's widowhood, Mr. Chouteau married a second wife, Miss Brigitte Saucier, of Cahokia, on Feb. 14, 1794. This lady died on May 18, 1829, after thirty-five years of married life, leaving five sons. Major Chouteau survived this second wife over twenty years. He died July 10, 1849, aged 90 years and 9 months and was laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery
View Catholic Death Record contributed by Katie Heindenfelder (2009)

Children of Major John Pierre Chouteau:
Augustus P., born May 9, 1786, married Sophie A. Labbadie, Feb. 15, 1809.
Pierre., Jr., born Jan. 19, 1789,. married Emilie Gratiot, June 15, 1813.
Paul Liguest, born Oct. 30., 1792, married Constance Dubreuil, Feb. 11, 1813.
Pelagie, born Oct. 7, 1790, married Bartholomew Berthold, Jan. 10, 1811.
Francis G., born Feb. 7, 1797, married Berenice Menard, July 12, 1819.
Cyprian, born Oct. 1, 1802, married, and died Feb. 1, 1879, aged 77 years.
Louis Pharamond, born Aug. 18, 1806, died unmarried May 28, 1831, aged 25 years.
Charles, born Feb. 2, 1808.
Frederic, born Oct. 16, 1809.

Children of Augustus P. Chouteau, the first son:
Sophie, born 1813, was married to N.N. Demenil.
Susanne, born 1815, was married to Louis R. Cortarmbert.
Marie Antoinette, born 1816, ,vas married to R. J. Watson.
Pierre Sylvestre, born 1819, was married to Miss Alvarez.
Virginia, born 1826, was married to John G. Priest.

Pelagie, Augustine, Marie E., Louis and Aimee died single - some of them young.

Augustus P. Chouteau died at his Trading Post in Arkansas, in 1839, aged 53, and Mrs. A. P. Chouteau in St. Louis, Sept, 5, 1862, aged 72 years and 6 mos .

Children of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., the second son:
Ernilie, born Feb. 13, 1814, married to John F. Sanford.
Julie, born Feb. 28, 1816, married to William Maffit.
Pierre Charles, born Dec. 25, 1817, died an infant in 1818.
Charles P. born Dec. 2, 1819, married to Julia A. Gratiot.
Benjamin Wilson, born Aug . 17, 1822, died an infant.

Pierre Chouteau, Jr., died Oct. 6, 1865, in his 77th year.
Mrs. Pierre Chouteau, died 1863, aged 70 years.

Children of Paul L. Chouteau, third son:
Augustus L., born April 22, 1815. Alexander, born Feb. 10, 1818.
Charles Louis, born March 7, 1819.
Charles Liguest, born 1821.

Mrs. P. L. Chouteau died in St. Louis, January 3rd, 1824.
Mr. P. L. Chouteau married a second wife, Miss Aurora Hay, daughter of John Hay, Esq., of Belleville, Ills., Nov. 3, 1830.

Children of Francis G. Chouteau, the fourth son: *
* All born in Kansas City, of which place he wa~ the founder, and for many years the sole resident
Edmund Francis, born Feb. 13, 1821.
Louis Amedé, born Feb. 27, 1825.
Louis Sylvestre, born Feb. 14, 1827.
Benjamin, born Dec. 25, 1828.
Odille, born Jan' y 8, 1837.

Children of Charles P. Chouteau, only son of Pierre, Jr.:
Emily, born Oct.1, 1846, married Mr. Henshaw.
Pierre, born JuIy 30, 1849, married to Miss Chauvin.
Nannie, born Jan' y 4, 1856, married to Lieut. Johnson, U. S. Army.
Henry, born Oct. 12, 1857.
Marie Julie, born Feb. 28, 1873.

Pierre Chouteau, son of Jean Pierre Chouteau, and grandson of Laclede, was born at St. Louis, January 19, 1789, and died here, October 16, 1865. Although not so long-lived as his father, who died in 1849 at the age of ninety-one years, nor his uncle, Auguste Chouteau, who died in 1829 at the age of eighty-one years, nor his cousin, Gabriel Chouteau, who died in 1887, in his ninety-third year, he lived out of one century into the middle of another, and stands as a strong connecting figure between the old era and the new, between the fur-trading post of 1800 and the St. Louis of 1865, with its population of 200,000 and all the agencies and accessories of a modern metropolis. He was known in his day as the prince of the fur-traders. All the Chouteaus before him, and his son, Charles P. Chouteau, after him, were fur-traders, and successful ones, too, but it was he who organized the business into a methodical and efficient system and extended its operations throughout the length and breadth of the vast unsettled West, increased the forts and stations, and established such confidential relations with the Indians that the United States Government was glad to secure his assistance in its distribution of annuities and in other dealings with the tribes. He began his acquaintance with the trade at an early age, being only nineteen years old when he accompanied his father on a perilous expedition among the savages of the upper Missouri. After embarking in the business as succesor to his aged father, he stood for more than forty years the central directing figure of commercial enterprises and development in the regions of the upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

Mr. Chouteau's earlier partners in the fur trade, Bartholomew Berthold, Bernard Pratte, Sr., and John P. Cabanne, died in 1831, 1837 and 1841 respectively, and John Jacob Astor, of New York, withdrew from the western branch of the American Fur Company about the year 1834, leaving a portion of his funds, however, still under the management of his old friend. In 1842 the company was reorganized, Mr. Chouteau associating with himself John B. Sarpy, Joseph A. Sire, and J. F. A. Sandford, and the house was thenceforth known as Pierre Chouteau, Jr., & Co. The headquarters of the old company had been for many years on the levee, in a rambling building constructed from the rock blasted for its cellars, but after the reorganization, a larger and more commodious building was erected on Washington Avenue, near Main, and here this notable company busily fulfilled and finally closed its mission. It was for a time a rendezvous for strange characters - a meeting place for persons whom nothing but the fur trade could have brought together - hunters and trappers moving with the silent tread which they had learned in their life of perpetual danger in the far West; deputations of gaudily clad and feathered Indians from the upper Missouri, who were attached to the fortunes of the company and sometimes fond of showing their devotion by too frequent visits to the headquarters; robust, good-natured Canadians, just returned from an expedition, or waiting for the departure of one; gay and brisk French attendants and employees engaged in unpacking or repacking the bales of furs; visitors from New York, or New Orleans, or Montreal, or from Europe, come to pay their respects to Mr. Chouteau and his partners; with an occasional author, naturalist or traveler, come to ask of the liberal and courteous proprietors the privilege of accompanying the next expedition; and the coming and going loiterers and dependents always found in the retinue of the prosperous St. Louis traders.

Mr. Chouteau was fond of active life, with a taste for adventure, and in his younger days would accompany the annual expeditions sent out with goods to be exchanged for furs - for he understood the importance of maintaining the friendship of the tribes among whom his posts were located, and also of keeping up personal relations with the hunters and trappers in the service of the company; and whenever the interests of the fur trade seemed to require a visit to the distant posts he was ready to go. There were always dangers to be encountered, but Mr. Chouteau possessed a courage which even the hunters and Indian fighters in the service of the company respected; and when it came to hardships, he was always ready to take his share of them with the others. Occasionally, too, he was called to the East and to Europe; but he managed the extensive business of his company from St. Louis, and it was in the office of the company that he was usually to be found, seated at his desk, conducting the important correspondence, examining the accounts, receiving the visitors who came with letters of introduction, engaged in easy conversation with his partners, or passing through the factory examining the packs, with a pleasant word for everyone whom he encountered. The books, voluminous correspondence and miscellaneous papers of the famous peltry house, together with those of the original Missouri Fur Company and the American Fur Company which preceded it, were fortunately preserved after his death and are still in the possession of his grandson and namesake, Pierre Chouteau. They are said to abound in curious and interesting facts of the pioneer times, their personages customs and notable incidents; and it is fortunate that they are in the keeping of a gentleman who is a worthy representative of this historic family and who takes the heartiest interest in the early history of St. Louis and the West. Pierre Chouteau, Jr., was a man of noble presence, erect, uncommonly tall, of a countenance habitually grave and thoughtful in repose, but in conversation animated and cheerful. His manners were easy and affable. He had had to do with the accomplished society of Eastern and European cities, with the army officers, authors, explorers and adventurers with whom St. Louis was a starting point and returning point; and with Indian chiefs, trappers and Indian fighters - and he was equally at home with all - the liberal patron, the upright merchant, and the accomplished man of the world.

He was married to Emilie Gratiot, June 15, 1815, and had five children: Emilie, who married John F. Sandford; Julie, who married William Maffitt; Charles P. Chouteau, still living in 1898; and Pierre Charles and Benjamin Wilson Chouteau, who died in infancy.

Born near Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky, April 12, 1791, he came to St. Louis in 1809 and entered the service of the Missouri Fur Company's expedition to the Rocky Mountain region. He was also a member of Stephen H. Long's expedition of 1819-1820 and served as interpreter, having become versed in the languages and dialects of the Indians and of the French. he also acted as as interpreter of Major Long's expedition, and was one of the earliest pioneers on the Columbia river. An army officer and Indian agent from 1820 to 1837, at which time he was dismissed by Martin Van Buren's administration for political difference.

Known among the Indians as "Controller of Fire-water" he was headquartered variously at Fort Leavenworth, Council Bluffs, and St. Louis. He assisted in making various treaties with the Indians, principally with the Pawnee, Otoe, Missouri, Iowa, Sauk, and Fox tribes, and his most conspicuous public service was in connection with the cession of the Platte Purchase territory in Northwest Missouri in 1836.

He was married to Mary Hertzog, daughter of Joseph and Catherine (Wilt), in St. Louis on 13 Nov 1823. They were the parents of four children: Lewis Bissell, who as said to be the first white child born in what became the state of Kansas, and who served as captain in the 3rd MO Infantry, C.S.A; Anne Elizabeth who married General Charles Ruff; O'Fallon who was a banker and stock raiser; and John Kerr who fought in his brother's regiment for the Confederacy and was killed at the battle of Franklin, Tennessee.

He purchased a large estate near Liberty, and continued his connections with the Indian territories as a U.S. sutler and freighter in business with Colonel Robert and William Campbell of St. Louis from about 1839 to 1855. During this time, in the "hard contest of 1840" he was elected to the Missouri State Legislature from Clay County on the Whig ticket. In 1856 he completed his palatial residence which he called Multnomah, and died there on 28 Dec 1860. His wife died on 27 Mar 1873 at the age of seventy-four years in Philadelphia.

Note: Compiled from the following sources: John Dougherty Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements, by Lewis Houck, R.R. Donnelly & Sons, Chicago, 1908; Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia (University of Missouri); Luttig, John, Clerk of Missouri Fur Company, Journal of a Fur-Trading Expedition on the Upper Missouri 1812-1813, ed. by Stella M. Drumm, St. Louis, MO Historical Society, 1920.

Andrew Drips was another of the famous trio of mountaineers - Fontenelle, Drips, and Vanderburgh - and, although older than either of his associates, survived them both many years. Comparatively little is known of his biography. He was born in Westmoreland County, Pa., in 1789, and died in Kansas City, Mo., September 1, 1860. Our first notice of him is in 1820 when he was associated with a fur trader by the name of Perkins. He was later a member of the Missouri Fur Company with Pilcher. Soon after the American Fur Company entered the mountain trade, Drips became associated with Vanderburgh in charge of the mountain expeditions. He continued in this business for many years. In 1842 he was appointed by President Tyler, agent for the tribes of the upper Missouri and held the office for four years. He was an active and efficient agent. After the expiration of this duty he returned to the employment of the American Fur Company.

Drip's principal establishment, while in the mountain trade, was at Bellevue a little above the mouth of the Platte and here he married a woman of the Oto nation. By her he had several children. His fourth child, a daughter, was born in Pierre's Hole on the day of the famous battle there with the Grosventre Indians, July 18, 1832. She is still living* and possesses the papers of her distinguished father. These are preserved in a small fur-covered trunk which major Drips carried with him on his expeditions. They form a very complete history of the events on the Missouri during the period when Major Drips was Indian Agent.

Note: *Mrs. William Mulkey of Kansas City, Mo.

Charles Gratiot, Sr., the only son of David Gratiot and Marie Bernard, was born at Lausanne, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, in the year 1752; his paternal ancestors were French Protestants, who had taken refuge there from the persecutions of the Catholic, consequent upon the revocation of the edict of Nantz by Louis XIV in 1865.

He received his early education at that place, and when yet a youth in his teens, was sent by his parents to an uncle Bernard in London, a brother of his mother, established in that city in business, with his uncles he remained some years. In the year 1769, at the age of seventeen years, he came over to Canada to be employed in the house of his Montreal uncle, Bernard, another brother of his mother, engaged largely there in trade with the Indians of the Northwest.

In 1769, April 2nd, he sailed from London on the ship Layton, and arrived at Quebec, Canada, on May 30th, after a tolerably favorable voyage of 60 days. Here he met his uncle Bernard, of Montreal, expecting the arrival of the ship.

June 9. - After ten days at Quebec, loading his uncle’s goods on a boat, he went up to Montreal by water, then about seventeen years of age.

He remained in Montreal about five years, most of the time with his uncle as a clerk learning the Indian trade, he being yet a minor under the laws of France, and under the control of his uncle.

When he came to America in 1769, he was an only child; in his second letter to his parents from Montreal in August, 1770, after he had been there fourteen months, he expresses his great joy at the receipt of the first letter from them of March 9th preceding, 1770, in which they inform him of the birth of a sister, his first and only one, a difference of seventeen years in their ages; and in all his subsequent letters to his parents he never failed to express his brotherly affection for her. This sister, Isabella, he saw for the first time, when he revisited his native place in the winter of 1791-92, when had had become a young woman of twenty-two years, and he in his fortieth year.

1774. - He spent his summer in a business trip for his uncle to the “upper country” (at that day this meant all the country north and west of Kinston at the foot of Lake Ontario, including all the lakes and rivers to the Mississippi), as far as Michilimackinac, the uppermost trading post, and the Illinois country on the Mississippi, returning to Montreal September 30th, then twenty-two years of age.

1775. - About May 1st, he left Montreal on his first trading adventure for himself, associated with a partner whose name is not given, with an outfit of goods furnished them by his uncle Bernard and another merchant of that place (then 23). They wintered 1775-76 among the tribes with whom they traded, and got back to Montreal at the end of August, 1776, absent sixteen months.

This first adventure was unsuccessful from his partner’s extravagant expenditures and heavy losses, leaving them largely in debt, resulting in an open rupture with his uncle Bernard.

1776. - He spent another year in Montreal endeavoring to settle up this first adventure, and affection preparations for a second one.

1777. - He left Montreal in August for Illinois country, where he had been very successful for his uncle in 1774. He had formed a trading connection in Montreal with three others, all experienced in the Indian trade, John Kay and David McCrae, two Scotchmen, and - Barthe and himself, two Swiss. They had procured the largest portion of their goods through the house of William Kay, elder brother of John, an established merchant in Montreal. They reached Mackinac in September, where his first entry is made in his ledger on September 24th as “David McCrae & Co.,” passing up to Green Bay in October, by the portage and prairie du Chien in November, he arrived in Cahokia at the close of November, where he opened his store early in December. His partners, being Indian traders, had stopped at various places on the route to pursue the trade (then 25); shortly afterward they opened another store at Kaskaskia.

1778. - His first spring and summer in Cahokia, Mr. Gratiot devoted his leisure time in instructing a number of persons how to prepare leaf tobacco into carrots as it is imported into Montreal, and induced a number to embark in its cultivation as very profitable.

July 4. - Mr. Gratiot had been seven months located at Cahokia, when on this day George Rogers Clark surprised Kaskaskia.

At the close of this year, Gratiot wrote a long letter to his father, and his first one to his little sister, Isabella, then nine years old.

Mr. Barthe, his Swiss partner, was killed by the Indians with whom he was trading in the winter of 1778-79.

1779. - In this year Mr. G. had a trading station on the Illinois river at the Indian village of Ouyatanon, at or near the present site of Peoria. After Clarks’ occupation of the country, Gratiot, from his knowledge of the English and French languages, and his influence with the people of the district, and near the same age, became very intimate with him, and although holding no official position, yet from his influence and knowledge, had much to do with the affairs of the time, and was usually consulted on important matters of a public nature.

In December there was an alarm at Cahokia concerning some Indians encamped at the Cantine, about ten miles northeast of the village, supposed to be Wabash Indians and hostile, On December 16th Mr. Gratiot wrote to Col. Montgomery, the American commandant at Kaskaskia, in relation to this alarm.

1780. - In April, the inhabitants of the village having received an intimation that a large force of Indians, led by British officers, were on their way to endeavor to surprise and recapture the place held a meeting and requested Mr. Gratiot to go in search of Col. Clark, then at Fort Jefferson, at the iron banks in Kentucky, below the mouth of the Ohio, to request him to come to their assistance. This Mr. Gratiot undertook, but returned from his mission unsuccessful, Clark having gone to Louisville by order of the governor of Virginia.

The surprise of the British side of the Illinois country, and the immediate establishment of the authority of the State of Virginia over the same with the death of Mr. Barthe, one of the partners, seems to have put an end to the firm of David McCrae & Co., as we see nothing more of it, and find Mr. Gratiot operating alone after this date.

1781. - Early in this year Mr. Gratiot removed over to St. Louis and became a Spanish subject to enable him to participate in the Indian trade of both the Spanish and English sides of the country, which he could not do as an English subject.

Early in the summer of 1783, Mr. Gratiot for himself, his late firm of McCrae & Co., and one Godfrey Linctot, with whom he had been interested in several speculations, having claims to a considerable amount against the State of Virginia, which he had been unsuccessful in his efforts to collect through other parties, concluded to go himself to Richmond and Williamsburg, hoping to meet with more success than those he had previously employed. On this trip Mr. G. was absent for over a year, extending it as far as Philadelphia, the first one from St. Louis to visit then far distant city, and got back to his home in St. Louis in June, 1784, the trip having been made on horseback. After this trip he appears to have remained at home in the pursuit of his business with varying success, until his first voyage to Europe, in 1791.

Mr. Gratiot had long been ambitious to establish a house in New Orleans in connection with one in Europe, through which to import from Europe the articles necessary for the Indian trade, and to send back through the same channel the returns from that trade.

In 1791, having gathered together his little capital in money and peltries, he sailed from New Orleans in the fall o this year for Bordeaux, with letters to parties in that city. From Bordeaux he went in October to Havre de Grace, with letters to the house of Amet, Ronus & Co., who suggested to him that “London being the largest fur market in the world,” he had better go there, and gave him a letter of introduction to Mr. John H. Schneider, a merchant of that city, who had amassed a handsome fortune form his business, principally in the fur market; here he spent about a month in various interviews with Mr. S. relating to his contemplated enterprise.

At the end of November he went to Switzerland, to revisit his native place and relative, from whom he had been absent exceeding twenty-five years.

After remaining a couple of months with his mother and sister, and relatives, his father being dead, he left Geneva January 27th, 1792, in the “diligence,” reached Poligny next day, 28th, and on February 4th reached Paris, where he remained some days, and London toward the close of February, brining with him his cousin Frederic (Fritz), a young lad, son of Charles Bugnion, whom his father had instructed to his care to bring to America, and qualify him for the Indian trade. (Mr. G. brought him to St. Louis, and placed him with Mr. Auguste Chouteau.) Mr. Gratiot remained a couple of months in London, arranging a plan of operations with Mr. Schneider, who acquired a great ascendancy over him, procured fro him a partner in one Solomon Abraham, a protégéJ of Schneider, and furnished them an outfit of goods. They sailed from London in April and arrived at Montreal in June, and in July went on up to Mackinac, where, after remaining some time, Mr. Gratiot got back to his home in St. Louis in November, 1792, after an absence of fourteen months. (This partnership resulted in a miserable failure from various causes, producing great loss to all the parties.)

1793. - Mr. Gratiot, having induced his brothers-in-law, Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, then associated in Indian trading, Papin & Tabeau, and Benito & Roy, to place in his charge their peltries to dispose of, and to fill their orders for goods in London, left St. Louis late in May for Montreal, from which place he sailed, at the close of October on the ship Eureta, and arrived at London on December 15th.

Here he remained for more than six months, listening and agreeing to the various schemes and projects suggested by Schneider to Gratiot, by which Gratiot would accumulate a rapid fortune, - to furnish him the capital to establish a house in new York, or St. Petersburg, or Ostend, etc. Gratiot, who from his great desire to acquire wealth, had become completely infatuated with the fancied generosity of Schneider, listened eagerly to the various plans and propositions of Schneider, who resorted to these steps to detain Gratiot in London until the arrival of Abraham from Canada to learn the true state of his affairs there. Finally Gratiot began to suspect the sincerity of Schneider in these various schemes, and to open his eyes to his own foolish credulity, when they come to an open rupture on May 7, 1794, and Gratiot determined to return at once to his home in America. Yet such an ascendancy had Schneider acquired over him by his plausibility and renewed offers of capital, that he contrived to yet detain Gratiot there until Jun 21, 1794, on which day he sailed from London, and after a passage of sixty-three days arrived at New York August 23d. On the next day, September 24th, 1794, he wrote from new York to his quondam friend a long letter in which he narrates all these occurrences. After remaining a couple of months in New York, he left for home by Baltimore and Pittsburg, and making a quick trip of but eighteen days by boat from Pittsburg to St. Louis, he reached his home in January 1795, about twenty months from May 1793, to January 1795, and immediately gave notice in the Montreal paper of the dissolution of the firm of Abraham & Gratiot.

1795. - In May he went down to New Orleans, on his way around to New York. He sailed from New Orleans about the middle of June on the brigatine Hanna, Capt. W. Westcott, arrived in New York in July, where he remained about three months until October, the year in which the yellow fever was so fatal in that and other Atlantic cities. He left New York for Baltimore early in October; there to Pittsburg with his goods, where he loaded them on a boat he had built there, and reached St. Louis with them in January, 1796.

1796. - As his stock of good were only gotten home in January of this year, and could not be disposed of and returns received from sales until 1797, he had no occasion to leave his home this year. He had become the possessor, some years previously, of a tract of land of a league square, four miles back from the village on the waters of the River des Peres, upon which he had improved a small farm, a house, orchard, garden, etc., he devoted his leisure in further improving, putting up a mill, distillery, etc.

He also received a proposition this year from a friend, Mr. Collignon, a merchant in London, who made consignments of goods to New York and New Orleans, to give him two hundred pounds sterling ($1,000) per annum, to act as his agent, in visiting these houses once a year to see after his interests - which Mr. Gratiot, who was fond of roaming about, accepted in a letter of June 6, 1776, too late to receive a reply thereto this same year. This proposition, however, was not effected, as we find from his ledger No. 4, that for the years 1797 to 1800, he was at home carrying on his store in St. Louis, and besides his mill and distillery on his farm near the village, he was also operating a tannery and salt works on the Meramec River.

In 1798, Mr. Gratiot obtained from Governor-General Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, at new Orleans, a concession for his league square near St. Louis, on which he had improved his farm some years previously.

After his return from his second voyage to London in 1795, Mr. Gratiot being in a great measure cured of his desire to accumulate a rapid fortune, settled himself down to the enjoyment of his home comforts, content to prosecute a moderate business. In this he was successful, having a good custom in his retail store from the Americans, who began to come into the country from the Ohio River and Kentucky, and made the new settlements of Bonhomme, Gravois, and along the Meramec, besides acquiring at times a number of tracts of land in various parts of the St. Louis district, by concessions, purchases, and other speculations, eventually becoming the possessor the handsome competency he had long sought, enabling him to give his numerous family of sons and daughters the best education the country could furnish.

1804. - After the transfer of the country to the United States, and the establishment of the first Court of Quarter Sessions in St. Louis, in December, 1804, Mr. Gratiot was appointed by Governor Harrison, the first presiding justice of the Court, his two associates being Augustus Chouteau and David Delaunay, which position he filled for three years 1805, 1806, and 1807, after this he was appointed a justice of the peace.

1809. - At the incorporation of the “Town of St. Louis,” he was elected a trustee, and filled the office of chairman of the board for the years 1811, 1812, and 1813 - this was his last public office.

On the 25th of June, 1781, Mr. Gratiot was united in marriage to Miss Victoire the eldest daughter of Madame Therese Bourgeois Chouteau.

They were the parents of thirteen children, nine of whom, four sons and five daughters grew to maturity, married and left families.

Mr. Charles Gratiot died of paralysis on April 20, 1817, at the age of sixty-five years. His widow survived him eight years and died June 15, 1825, at the same age of sixty-five years.

Their children were:

1. Julie, born July 24, 1782; married to John P. Cabanné, from France, April 8, 1799.
2. Victoire, born March 25, 1785, married to Sylvestre Labbadie, August 16, 1806.
3. Charles, born August 29, 1786, married to Ann Belin, Philadelphia, April 22, 1819.
4. Marie Therese, born February 20, 1788, married to John Nicholas Macklot from France, August 16, 1806.
5. Henry, born April25, 1789, married to Susan Hempstead, Connecticut, February, 1813.
6. Emily Anne, born October 5, 1793, married to Peter Chouteau, Jr., June 15, 1813.
7. Louise Isabella, born October 15, 1796, married to Jules Demun, St. Dom, from May 31, 1812.
8. Marie Brigitte born January 6, 1798, died September 7, 1803; age 5 years, 8 months.
9. John Pierre, born February 19, 1799, married to Marie Antoinette Perdreauville from Paris, Nov. 18., 1819.
10. Paul Benjamin, born March 13, 1800, married to Virginia Billon, from Philadelphia, June 6, 1825.
11. Infants, died young in 1801.
12. Infant died young in 1803.
13. Infant died young in 1804.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHARLES GRATIOT, SR.

He was a man of more than ordinary capacity and ability, and from his early business education had grown to manhood with the idea that the chief aim of man was, to learn how to keep books properly, and to acquire wealth. In his school-boy days at home with his parents, and his youth and early manhood in London and Canada, he does not seem to have been any more than ordinarily active in the pursuit of business knowledge, and while with his Montreal uncle Bernard, a period of some five years, and with whom he does not appear to have got along very agreeably, his uncle frequently chiding him - he seems from the tenor of his letters to his father at home, to be somewhat under the influenced of depressed spirits, frequently lamenting his unfortunate condition, doubtless from home-sickness. But after leaving the service of this Montreal uncle, and starting out for himself, he soon displayed great energy and perseverance in his pursuit of wealth, which continued with him through life.

A prominent trait in his character was his disposition for controversial argument; nature had cut him out for the legal profession, he was a special pleader, and possessed the faculty of presenting his case so favorably that he never failed to carry his point, as is evidenced by the fact that in every instance in which we find him as a litigant, he came off the winner of his case, his written arguments being always prepared by himself, possessing the advantages of familiarity with both the French and English languages.

Nothing can better furnish an insight into the disposition and character of any one whom we never personally knew than a careful perusal of his letters, more especially of those written to his kinsmen and personal friends, when policy and reserve are usually cast aside, and a man is apt to lay open his inmost thought with candor and frankness inherent in his nature, and from these we are enable, not only to correctly estimate his mental calibre, but to arrive in a great measure at a correct appreciation of the predominant traits in his temper and disposition.

It is from a careful study of his letters, solely, that I have formed my estimate of Charles Gratiot, Sr., a man I never knew, he being laid in his grave eighteen months previously to my arrival in the place.

The fourth son of Charles Gratiot, Sr., was born March 13, 1800, and returned from College at Bardstown, Kentucky, with his brother John in 18l8. He was employed as a cIerk in the house of Berthold & Chouteau for some few years. In 1823 he entered into an engagement with the American Fur Company to act as a clerk of the company in the Fur trade of the upper Missouri.

In 1825, June 6, he was married to Miss Virginia, daughter of Mr. Charles Billon, dec'd, from Philadelphia, and their first child, a son, was born on April 3, 1828. On the expiration of his engagement with the Fur company he removed with his family to Gratiot's Grove, where his brothers Henry and John were smelting lead, and engaged in mining for a few years. In 1832 he returned to St. Louis, and removed out to his farm, a part of his father's "league square," five miles from the City, now Cheltenham, where he lived the balance of his life.

In 1851-53 one of the Judges of the County Court.

He died in 1854, in his 55th year, and Mrs. P. M. Gratiot Nov. 29, 1871, aged 66 years, 7 months.

Their children:
Charles B., born April 3, 1828, married to Edith Thornburg.
Henry Terry, born July 3, 1830, unmarried.
Victoria Sophia, born March 10, 1832, died a young woman.
John Sarpy, born Feb. 2, 1834, died young.
Isabella Demun, born Aug. 25, 1836, died young.
Adolph Paul G., born Oct. 9, 1838, married to Miss Caroline Graham.
Theresa M., born April 15, 1841.
Paul Benjamin, born Aug 10, 1847.

The fifth son of Stephen Hempstead, Sr., was born in New London, Connecticut, in the year 1795, and came to St. Louis with his father's family in 1811, at the age of 16 years.

Of a restless roving disposition when young, he was for a few years engaged in the Indian trade of the Missouri.

After he became of age he appeared to settle down to business, purchased several pieces of choice property, which he resold, realizing a handsome profit on them, and was supposed to be prospering, when in 1825 he suddenly left St. Louis and never returned.

In 1819 he was appointed U. S. Military Storekeeper for St. Louis, and Paymaster of the Missouri Militia.

About 1841, a brother, William, having good gronnds for believing him dead, made application to the Probate Court for letters of administration on his estate.

Mr. Hempstead had married in 1817, Miss Cornelia, daughter of Judge Henry Vanderburgh, of Vincennes, Indiana; they had but one child, named after her mother, Cornelia V., who subsequently became the wife of a Jno. D. Wilson, and with the mother continued to reside in St. Louis for a number of years thereafter.

Andrew Henry, one of the original incorporators of the Missouri Fur Company, and later the partner of Gen. W.H. Ashley, was born between 1773-1778, in Fayette county, Pa. It is not known when he migrated West, but probably before the cession of Louisiana. he joined the Missouri Fur Company in 1809 and bore the runt of the terrible struggle with the Blackfeet in the following year at the Three Forks of the Missouri. Driven from this position, he crossed the Divide and built a post on the tributary of the Snake river, which still bears his name. he was thus the first American trader to carry his business to the Pacific side of the mountains. Unable to maintain himself there he returned to the settlements in the following year. Nothing is known of his doings for the next ten years, but he presumably went into the business of mining, for there is one reference to him about 1815 as "Andrew Henry of the mines."

In 1822 he associated himself with Ashley, and his doings during the next two years will presently be narrated. it is not known when he finally left the Indian country, nor to what business he devoted himself in his later years. He was at one time well off, but lost his money by becoming surety for defaulting debtors. urged to put his property in his wife's name to avoid its loss, he indignantly repelled the suggestion, preferring ot live a poor man rather than a dishonest one.

Was one of the bravest and most resourceful men in the fur trade. He was a Native of Chamberburg, Pennsylvania. but the year of his birth is unknown. He came to St. Louis in the early part of l804, and later became a member of the First Infantry, commanded by Col. Thomas Hunt. He was appointed ensign June 10, 1807, and on October 10, 1808, was promoted to second lieutenant; two weeks later he resigned from the Army. He was stationed at Fort Bellefontaine during most of his army service, although for a short time, in 1808, he was in command of the small garrison at St.Louis. In 1809 he went up the Missouri River with the Missouri Fur Company, and soon became Lisa's most trusted lieutenant. There is no record of his having returned to St. Louis after this departure. In 1810 he joined fortunes with Jean Baptiste Vallé as a free hunter on the Upper Missouri. Immell was at Fort Osage in March, 1817, where he gave a report of some petrified mammoth bones and cedar which he saw at a "lake near the waters of Qui Courre River". This information was afterward published in the Missouri Gazette, April 12, 1817. When Lisa was deprived of the control and management of the affairs of Cabanné & Company on the Missouri River and its waters, in February. 1819, Michael E. Immell, who was at Fort Lisa, was appointed to take command jointly with George Kennerly.

While in command later, with Robert Jones, of an expedition on the Yellowstone, he was killed; being literally cut to pieces in battle with the Blackfeet, May 31, 1823. Major O'Fallon, United States Agent, in his report of this conflict to Gen. Clark, July 3, 1823, speaks of Immell in these words: “lmmell has been a long time on this river, first as an officer in the U.S. Army, since as a trader of some distinction. He was in some respects an extraordinary man; he was brave, uncommonly large and of great muscular strength, and, when timely apprised of danger, a host in himself."

In October, 1800*, in the good old city of Philadelphia, Charles Keemle was born. His grandfather was a respectable physician, who emigrated from Amsterdam and settled in the land of Penn. His father was a skillful mechanic, yet devoted but a little of his life to that pursuit, but as a commander of trading vessels, spent most of his time upon the rivers and the ocean. His mother died in the city of Norfolk, Virginia when he was but six years of age, and he was placed in charge of an uncle until he was nine years of age, and then was put to learn the printing business in the office of the Norfolk Herald, where he remained until 1816. He is, consequently, the oldest printer west of the Mississippi.

The love of adventure was always a dominant trait in the character of Charles Keemle, and on leaving the office of the Norfolk Herald, at the suggestion of Dr. Jennings of Norfolk, who had a brother resident in Indiana, and looking forward to the chief magistracy of the state, he determined to go to Vincennes, Indiana, and there establish a paper. Accompanied by a fellow-printer of much more mature years, he started for his future destination, where he arrived March, 1817, having performed that portion of the journey on foot between Baltimore and Pittsburgh. On March 14th, the first number of the Indiana Sentinel was issued, published by Dillworth & Keemle.

Believing, from the location of Vincennes, that it would never become a great city, young Keemle accepted the invitation given to him by many influential citizens of St. Louis, and arrived there August 2d, 1817. He took charge of a paper called the Emigrant, which was the second journal west of the Mississippi, which was afterward merged into the St. Louis Enquirer, with which Thomas H. Benton was connected in the capacity of editor. The continued confinement beginning to tell on his constitution he gave up the printing business in August, 1820, and engaged as clerk to the American Fur Company; and now commences a portion of his history which is filled with romantic incident.

The company started from St. Louis September, 1820, and spent the winter in trading successfully with the Kansas tribe of Indians. In 1821, Mr. Keemle was selected by Major Joshua Pilcher to make one of a company of fifty-four, carefully picked for the occasion, to penetrate to the Rocky Mountains, to trade with the savage hordes of Indians who inhabited the those far off wilds. The party started from Fort Lisa, in the vicinity of Council BIuff, and, after some perilous adventures, arrived at the mouth of the Yellowstone and commenced trading with the Crows, who inhabited that country, and sending out in all directions the experienced hunters and trappers that they might obtain as large a quantity of beaver skins as possible, which kind of fur was most desired by the company. Mr. Keemle acted as agent and clerk of the expedition, and for three years suffered all the hardships incident to living and trading in the remote wilderness, far from the pale of civilization.

While in these remote regions, he narrowly escaped with his life from a murderous attack by an overwhelming number of Indians upon the few daring spirits who had ventured into their country. It was the closing of the Spring of 1823, that the company, which had become reduced to forty-one men, were trading on the head-waters of the Missouri, and from significant signs discovered that the Blackfeet Indians, who roamed over those regions, evinced a hostile intention. They saw large companies of that warlike tribe roaming in their vicinity, and evidently watching their movements. The company immcdiately retraced their steps, and endeavored to regain thc Crow country, where the natives were friendly and the fendal enemies of the Blackfeet. The last-named Indians, on discovering their intention, gathered themselves into a formidable body of more than a thousand warriors, and early one morning attacked the party, amid deafening yells, as they were passing along the base of a small mountain skirting the Yellowstone. To have yielded to their enemies would have subjected them to captivity then torture, and finally death. Resistance though against such fearful odds, was the only alternative, and the party had previously made up their minds to defend themselves to the last extremity to save their scalp-locks from the clutch of the savage. In the murderous attack the two leaders of the expedition, Immell and Jones, fell early in the engagement, and then the command devolved upon Mr. Keemle, who ordered the men to fight while retreating from ravine to ravine, and after a conflict of eight hours succeeded in driving off their enemies, who had hung upon their path howling and yelling like so many demons with considerable loss. The little party suffered severely, having had ten killed, nine wounded, and one was missing. They afterward reached a Crow village, and manufacturing some boats, arrived safely at the mouth of the Yellowstone.

Colonel Keemle remained connected with the company until 1825, when he returned to St. Louis and associated himself again with the printing business, and although he had several lucrative offers made to him nothing could tempt him again to the Yellowstone. I-Ie was associated with five or six newspaper enterprises, none of which had a permanent existence; but during their time were the organs of the Democratic party.

In 1839, Colonel Keemle was married to the only daughter of Thomas P. Oliver, now of Illinois, and has a family of three children. He possesses, in a high degree, the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and has been offered several honorable positions. In 1839 he was nominated for mayor, but declined running, and when General Harrison became president, he received the first appointment made by him in this state, that of superintendent of Indian affairs for Missouri. In 1840 he received the appointment of secretary of the interior, and under General Taylor's administration, that of Indian agent for the entire Platte River district, both of which he declined. In 1853 he was elected recorder of deeds for St. Louis county, which office he still holds.

Colonel Keemle is one of the most popular men in the city of St. Louis. He is in the sixtieth year of his age, but possesses health and vigor sufficient to have another bout with the Indians at the mouth of the Yellowstone.

Note: *Headstone of Charles Keemle indicates he was born 08 Oct 1797.

Liguest, Pierre Laclede, one of the founders of St. Louis, Mo., was born in France in 1724, and at the age of thirty-one years came to New Orleans, where he engaged in business as ' a merchant. In 1762 he obtained a license from the governor of Louisiana giving him the exclusive right to trade in furs with the Indians in the Missouri valley. Under this license the firm of Maxent & Co. was organized, and in Feb., 1764, he established his headquarters where the city of St. Louis now stands. For several years he carried on a profitable trade in furs, establishing posts at various points in the Indian country. He died on June 20, 1778, near the mouth of the Arkansas river, while returning to St. Louis from New Orleans.

There has been some question as to his correct name. Sometimes it appears as Pierre Liguest Laclede, at others as Pierre Laclede Liguest. Sharp's History of St. Louis, says: " In fourteen instances in which the name occurs in the archives it is written 'Pierre Laclede Liguest.' In the body of legal instruments, whether drawn by himself or a notary, this is the almost uniform orthography. But whenever Laclede signed his name to a document, the signature is universally 'Laclede Liguest.' Hyde & Conard's Cyclopedia of St. Louis says: "While a resident of New Orleans Laclede contracted a civil marriage with Therese Chouteau, who had separated from a former husband, and who was denied divorcement by the Catholic church. Four children were born to this union, but all of these children, upon confirmation in the church, took the name of the mother, and hence none of Laclede's descendants bears his name."

Fur trader and explorer, was born in the Island of Cuba, September 8, 1772, and died at Sulphur Spring, Cheltenham, near St. Louis, August 12,1820. His parents were Spanish, and it is probable that he came from Cuba first to New Orleans, and lived there several years before coming to St. Louis in the year 1807. He was a brave, daring, enterprising man, but prudent withal, and it is probable that while living at New Orleans he first learned of the fur trade and the Chouteaus through the fur packs and persons in charge of them, taken from St. Louis to New Orleans in barges. At that time this trade was attracting many a daring and adventurous spirit, and Lisa possessed the qualities required.

He came to St. Louis four years after the cession of Upper Louisiana to the United States, and at once embarked in the trade. He must have brought some money with him, or else have had good credit, for the very year that he arrived he went in partnership with George Drouillard, who had just returned from accompanying the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific. These two took out a stock of goods valued at $16,000 to the upper Missouri region. Lisa's courage and enterprising spirit attracted the attention of the Chouteaus, the great chiefs of the fur trade, and when the Missouri Fur Company was organized in 1808 by Pierre Chouteau and William Clark, Lisa was taken in. The following year the American Fur Company was organized by William Clark, Manuel Lisa, and Silvestre Labadie, each of them putting $9,000 into the venture. The next year he went in with the Chouteaus, and seems to have remained with them to the end, as we find him frequently leading their expeditions into the Indian country. In 1811, when Wilson P. Hunt set out from St. Louis with seventy men and three barges, on the journey to the mouth of the Columbia River, which was attended with so many hardships, he was overhauled by a party commanded by Lisa, which had left St. Louis the following year, and the two parties for a time traveled near together. On one occasion, when the Indians showed some signs of hostility to the Hunt party, Lisa warned them that they were his friends, and he would treat an act of hostility to them as if it were offered to himself. Lisa was an explorer and fighter, as well as trader, and his friendship was sought by adventurers and scholars, who desired to make a visit to the Rocky Mountains or to the Indian tribes under the protection of his well-armed and equipped expeditions. Brackenridge, the author, accompanied him in 1811, and Bradbury and Nutall, the English botanists, enjoyed the hospitalities of his trading post in the Mandan country the same year. His several posts located in the upper Missouri River region were a shelter to traders, trappers, hunters, and all others when in need; and it was in one of them that John Colter, naked, starving and exhausted, found refuge after his escape from the Blackfeet Indians. In September, 1819, the "Western Engineer," the first steamboat to enter the Missouri River, tied up at Lisa's post, five miles below where Council Bluffs now stands, and passed the winter there.

Lisa took part in forming the first bank in St. Louis - the Bank of St. Louis - in 1813, having been named one of the commissioners to receive subscriptions to the stock. He married Mrs. Mary Hempstead Keeney, widow of John Keeney. She was the daughter of Stephen Hempstead, and sister of Edward Hempstead, delegate in Congress from Missouri Territory. He died at his home at Sulphur Spring, near St. Louis, at the age of forty-eight years.

Note: Laid to rest at Bellefontaine Cemetery - St. Louis.

French pioneer and first Lieutenant-Governor, was born at St. Antoine, Canada, Oct. 7, 1766; settled at Kaskaskia, in 1790, and engaged in trade. Becoming interested in politics, he was elected to the Territorial Council of Indiana, and later to the Legislative Council of Illinois Territory, being presiding officer of the latter until the admission of Illinois as a State. He was, for several years, Government Agent, and in this capacity negotiated several important treaties with the Indians, of whose characteristics he seemed to have an intuitive perception.

He was of a nervous temperament, impulsive and generous. In 1818 he was elected the first Lieutenant-Governor of the new State. His term of office having expired, he retired to private life and the care of his extensive business. He died at Kaskaskia, in June, 1844, leaving what was then considered a large estate. Among his assets, however, were found a large number of prmnissory notes, which he had endorsed for personal friends, besides many uncollectable accounts from poor people, to whom he had sold goods through pure generosity.

Menard County was named for him, and a statue in his honor stands in the capital grounds at Springfield, erected by the son of his old partner - Charles Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis.

Born in Culpeper County, Virginia, March 15, 1790; came to St. Louis during the War of 1812-15. Originally a hatter by occupation, being a gentleman of intelligence and enterprise, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, associated for some time with Col. Thos. F. Riddick, who was a relative.

About the year 1820 he engaged in the Fur trade of the Upper Missouri River, in which pusuit he spent a number of years, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the various tribes of that region.

At the death of Gen'l William Clark in 1838, Mr. Pilcher was appointed by President Van Buren to succeed him in the office of Superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis. This position he filled for about five years, dying here, unmarried, on June 5, 1843, aged 53 years, 2 months and 21 days.

Once mayor of St. Louis, and distinguished also in the early days as a merchant and fur trader, was born in St. Louis, December 17, 1803, and died here August 10, 1886. He was the first child, born in St. Louis after the ratification by the United States Senate of the treaty with France, through which the Province of Louisiana, which included the domain now embraced in the State of Missouri, became a part of the United States. His father was born at Ste. Genevieve, and belonged to an old French family, as did also his mother, who was born in St. Louis. His grandmother was a Miss De Labaye before her marriage, was born in France, and came of a very distinguished French family. His father, General Bernard Pratte, who was head of the old fur trading firm of Pratte, Chouteau & Co., was a man of fine attainments and high character, who served as one of the territorial judges of Missouri, and also took part in the War of 1812, when he was placed in command of an expedition sent to Fort Madison. During the administration of President Monroe the elder Pratte was appointed receiver of public moneys, in St. Louis, and he also filled numerous other offices of trust and responsibility.

The younger Bernard Pratte attended the schools of St. Louis until he was fifteen years of age, and was then sent to Georgetown, Kentucky, where he remained until he completed his education. Returning then to St. Louis he entered into business with his father, who was engaged in general merchandising and fur trading, and during the earlier years of his manhood spent much of his time traveling between St. Louis and New Orleans, the business of the firm extending to that city. The firm name of Bernard Pratte & Co., under which they did business, was in those days a familiar one throughout the entire Southwest, and in the Northwest as well, where the elder and younger Pratte had a large Indian trade.

Bernard Pratte, the younger, was of a somewhat adventurous disposition, and the trade was pushed into remote regions through his enterprise and activity. As late as 1832 no steamboat had navigated the Missouri River as far as the mouth of the Yellowstone. True, the river had been explored to its source, and for many years the trade had been carried on among the Indians of the upper river region. But obstructed as it was by snags and impediments of various kinds, to undertake to ascend the river by steamboat as far as the Yellowstone had been deemed theretofore too perilous a venture. Mr. Pratte, however, thought the voyage practicable, and in 1832, in connection with Pierre Chouteau, attempted the passage. He successfully. accomplished the undertaking, and other steamboats followed in the wake of the one which had gone to the mouth of the Yellowstone under his auspices, until the steamboat whistle became a familiar sound to the Crow and Blackfoot tribes of Indians in the far Northwest. In 1833 the partnership which had theretofore existed between his father and himself was dissolved, and he became junior member of the new firm of Mulligan & Pratte. This firm came into existence under favorable auspices, and maintained a high reputation until it was dissolved by the withdrawal of Mulligan in 1840. After that Mr. Pratte continued in business on his own account until the admission of a partner brought into existence the firm of Pratte & Cabanne, which continued in business six years. Having, at the end of that time, amassed a fortune, Mr. Pratte retired from commercial pursuits, and during the remainder of his life he devoted his time to the care of his estate.

He was twice elected mayor of St. Louis, and was one of the most faithful and efficient public servants who have ever been at the head of the city government. He was diligent in advancing the interests of the city and in making public improvements, and during his administration the city was lighted by gas, the levee was paved with stone blocks, and other important improvements inaugurated. In 1838 he was elected to the General Assembly of Missouri, and proved himself an able and honest legislator. Besides being prominent in the commercial circles of St. Louis, he was identified also with its banking interests, serving for many years as a director of the Bank of the State of Missouri, and, at one time, as its president.

In 1824 Mr. Pratte married Miss Louise Chenie, daughter of Antoine Chenie, of St. Louis. Their children were Bernard Pratte, Jr., who married Bettie Edwards, of Louisville, Kentucky; Louise Pratte, who married Colonel Clay Taylor; Celeste Pratte, who married Augustus E. Tracy; Julia Pratte, who married Colonel John H. Dickerson, of the United States Army, and for her second husband Governor William Gilpin, of Colorado; Laura Pratte never married; Lina Pratte, who married Dr. P. G. Robinson, and Sylvester A. Pratte, who married Mary Sloan.

See also: Family History of Jean Baptiste Pratte by Greg Benard (Outside Link)

William Henry Vanderburgh, clerk and partisan of the American Fur Company, was a chivalrous and daring leader. He was born in Vincennes, Ind., probably about 1798, although there is authority for fixing the date at 1792. He was the son of Henry Vanderburgh who did service in the Revolutionary War as captain in the Fifth New york Regiment, and was subsequently appointed by President Adams, Judge of the Indiana territory.

Young Vanderburgh was educated at West Point, having entered that institution in 1817. he could not long have remained in the government service, for as early as 1823 he had achieved distinction as a trader and was associated with Joshua Pilcher in the Missouri Fur Company. He was present at the battle with the Aricara Indians in August of that year and held the nominal rank of Captain by appointment of Colonel Leavenworth. After leaving the service of the Missouri Fur company he entered that of the American Fur Company as a partisan in charge of the mountain expeditions. The events of his career in the mountains, so far as known, are related in the regular course of our narrative, while the circumstances of his tragic death form the subject of a separate chapter.

Updated 27 Oct 2009
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