Fort Union Trading Post Historic Structures Report (Part II) Historical Data Section

The upper Missouri did not quickly reveal its mysteries to the hunters and traders of the French colonies. For the century after two Quebeçois, Louis Jolliet, a coeur de bois, and Father Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit, discovered the river's mouth in 1673, geographers could but guess about the Missouri's headwaters. By the 1770's, however, British traders were pushing westward and southward from Hudson Bay and Lake Winnipeg. The French and Spanish at the village of St. Louis reacted to this pressure by expending their trade up the river onto the lands of the northern plains Indians.

The 1804-06 Journey of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to the Pacific dramatized the change of ownership of Louisiana from Spain to the United States. These American explorers described with accuracy the tributaries of the upper Missouri, such as the Yellowstone, and brought the news that the western mountains were rich in furs, particularly beaver.

Two years after Lewis and Clark completed their journey, John Jacob Astor, a sober German immigrant who had already acquired a small fortune in the fur trade and in trade with China, wrote New York State's most powerful politician, De Witt Clinton, then mayor of New York City. From his personal knowledge of the fur trade and from studying the operations of the British companies in Canada, Astor had developed some ideas "for carring on the furr trade in the united states in A manner even more extensive that it is Done by the comaneys in canada." He admitted his plan would require four or five years in order to get control of "the whole of the furr trade & to extend it to the weastern ocean." His transportation routes would be from both New York and New Orleans, "up the Missiccppie and to have a range of Posts or trading houses on the rout made by Captn Lewis to the Sea." [1]

Astor pursued his dream and, in the spring of 1808, the American Fur Company came into existence. The organizational growth of the company during the next 26 years would be a major study in itself, yet it is necessary to note certain stages, subsidiary companies, and personalities along the way. One such name is that of Ramsay Crooks.

Born in Scotland, Crooks had come to Canada while still a teen-ager. After working briefly for fur traders based in Montreal, he appeared in St. Louis where he joined Astor's Pacific Fur Company when this subsidiary was formed in 1811. Crooks climbed rapidly and, by 1817, was a member of the exclusive top management of the American Fur Company. [2]

Although the Pacific Fur Company lost out to British traders on the Pacific coast during the War of 1812, Astor solidified his position at the same time in the Great Lakes area through another subsidiary, the South West Company (i.e., southwest of Montreal). [3] In the spring of 1821, Astor acknowledged Crooks' contributions to this period of the firm's growth by increasing Ramsay's share in the company to one-fifth of the whole. [4] The two men now felt ready to take on the opposition for control of the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountain trade.

Later that year, Crooks sent an agent to St. Louis to negotiate with fur companies based there. At first, this agent met with stubborn resistance as the pride of St. Louis turned a deaf ear to the upstarts from the East. But, by 1823, the American Fur Company succeeded in establishing its presence in St. Louis when Stone, Bostwick, and Company agreed to serve as its agent. [5]

At this time the Company underwent still another reorganization. The Great Lakes area was renamed the Northern Department; while the hoped-for but as yet unrealized developments out of St. Louis were named the Western Department. Ramsay Crooks took over the management of both departments. [6]

Astor, though spending an increasing amount of time in Europe now, continued to fret about the slowness of the Western Department's expansion, especially up the Missouri River. Two opposition companies, Bernard Pratte and Company and the Columbia Fur Company, were particularly successful in keeping Astor's men restricted pretty much to the role of buyers at St. Louis. [7]

At this time, four St. Louis men of French descent composed the firm of Bernard Pratte and Company: Pratte himself, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., John P. Cabanne, and B. Berthold, all members of important families. Mrs. Pratte and Pierre Chouteau, Jr., were first cousins. They were also the grandchildren of Lacléde Liquest, the founder of St. Louis. These two cousins demonstrated both the feudalistic organization of French society in St. Louis and the problem that Astor faced in trying to break into this society. [8] So spirited was the competition offered by Pratte's company that, in 1827, Astor gave up trying to break it and came to terms with it. A contract was arranged finally by which Bernard Pratte and Company assumed control of the Western Department. [9] Further cementing the ties between the two companies was Ramsay Crooks' marriage two years earlier to Bernard Pratte's daughter. [10]

Crooks next turned his attention to the Columbia Fur Company. This dynamic, cocky organization was composed mostly of ex-employees of the North West Company who had migrated to St. Louis after that company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in the early 1820's. To overcome the law restricting foreigners in the fur trade, an American named Tilton became the head of the company. But he was just a figurehead; the real leader was Kenneth McKenzie. [11]

Like Crooks, McKenzie had been born in Scotland. He migrated to Canada before he was twenty and became a clerk in the North West Company. After he arrived in St. Louis in 1822, he applied for American citizenship, which he eventually acquired. Beyond anyone's doubt he was the ablest member of the Columbia Fur Company. A ruthless, proud man, his ambitions were matched by his abilities to realize them. [12]

Crooks began his courtship of the Columbia Fur Company as early as the summer of 1826. McKenzie reacted by setting up conditions that the American Fur Company could not accept. Undiscouraged, Crooks wrote McKenzie, "I am still disposed to arrange for the future provided you are inclined to be moderate in your expectations." Crooks saw the futility of trying to reach agreement by writing letters and proposed that the two Scotsmen meet at Fort Snelling "next April or perhaps even earlier." [13]

In May 1827, Crooks reported to Astor, then in New York, that he had met with McKenzie twice (though not at Fort Snelling) and "I must say he was as frank as a prudent man ought to be." More over, "to secure even Mr. McKenzie would be very desirable for he is certainly the soul of his concern." Astor learned in this letter that McKenzie would not come over to the American Fur Company unless some of his associates came with him. [14] This demand was easily accommodated, for McKenzie wished to include only the more competent of his associates.

Negotiations continued in St. Louis throughout June. Crooks realized he was up against a hard bargainer; however, on July 6, he informed Astor "that after an almost endless negociation [sic] I have at last succeeded in agreeing on preliminaries with the Columbia Fur Company to give up their trade entirely and take a share with us in that of the Upper Missouri." [15]

The structure of the American Fur Company was now virtually complete; only the Rocky Mountain trade still lay outside its grasp. Astor and Crooks oversaw the whole operation, with Crooks actively concerned with the management of both the Northern and Western Departments. The Northern Department held a near monopoly in its area of operations, while the Western Department, now with both Chouteau and McKenzie in its folds, was ready to take control of the upper Missouri and to challenge any and all who dared to compete. McKenzie was placed in charge of the upper river and his organization's name was changed from Columbia Fur Company to Upper Missouri Outfit, abbreviated in correspondence and seals to UMO. Never subservient--indeed as independent as before--the Upper Missouri Outfit worked with Bernard Pratte and Company and the American Fur Company in the manner of an associate rather than as a subordinate. But as far as the general public and the opposition traders were concerned, the whole organization was known as the American Fur Company. [16]

The agreement was not the end of Crooks' work in St. Louis that summer. Pierre Chouteau, Jr.'s health was very poor for the moment and he was not up to supervising the preparation of outfits for the upper Missouri. Besides that, Crooks concluded, Pierre needed a little more training in the methods employed by the American Fur Company. Thus Crooks remained in the humid city overseeing the departure of the outfits for the newly-acquired empire. [17]

Crooks was soon to learn that he did not have to worry about Chouteau's stamina. Known in his family as Cadet, Pierre was soon to prove himself as the most dynamic leader in the St. Louis fur industry. Born in the city in 1789, he had become a clerk for his father, Pierre, Sr., when 15 years old. He had traveled up the Missouri as early as 1809 and, as the years passed, added to his knowledge and experience of handling men and furs. In the next few years, his increasing stature would show itself in the name-changes of his company, first to Pratte, Chouteau & Company; then, with Pratte's retirement in 1838, to Pierre Chouteau, Jr., & Company.

Chouteau, described by DeVoto as a financier with an "empire-building mind, hard, brilliant, daring, speculative, and ruthless," recovered his strength and assumed his responsibilities. Soon he would be advising his associates, "erasez toute opposition," and employing every stratagem necessary to that end. [18]

The inventories of the former posts of the Columbia Fur Company were completed by 1828. Crooks wrote to Chouteau, "I am rejoiced to find our new ally Mr. McKenzie was so reasonable in adjusting the matters connected with the Inventories." [19] By the fall of 1828, McKenzie was ready to build the citadel from which he would rule the upper Missouri. He would be called King by both enemy and friend; the seat of his kingdom would be called Fort Union.