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Fort Union Trading Post
Historic Structures Report (Part II) Historical Data Section |
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PART I: A CHRONOLOGICAL STRUCTURAL HISTORY OF FORT UNION TRADING POST, 1829-1867 |
ENDNOTES
Chapter 1
1. Astor Papers, Baker Library, Harvard University, Vol. 44, copy of letter from John Jacob Astor, N.Y., January 1808, to De Witt Clinton.
2. Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West (2 vols. New York, 1935), 1, 380-81.
3. Porter, 2, 750; Le Roy R. Hafen, editor, The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West (5 vols. Glendale, 1965 on), 1, 105. Astor joined the Michilimackinac Company, a subsidiary of the North West Company (Canadian), to form the South West Company, 1811. In 1816, a bill was enacted excluding foreigners from control of the fur trade in the United States. This law encouraged the Canadian members of the company to sell out to Astor in 1817.
4. John Jacob Astor Papers, New York Public Library, Photostat of letter from J. J. Astor, Paris, to Ramsay Crooks, March 27, 1821.
6. Phillips, 2, 402; Porter, 2, 750; Hafen, 1, 105.
8. The Chouteau family tree is unbelievably confused. Perhaps it is enough to note at this point that the original Chouteau in St. Louis was Rene Auguste who not only helped Lacléde Liquest found the city but lost his wife to Lacléde. Mrs. Chouteau had at least one child by her husband before going to Lacléde, by whom she had several more, including Pierre Chouteau, Sr. (Pierre Jr.'s father) and the mother of Mrs. Pratte. However, she called all her children Chouteau and so they are known to history. It is ironic that all the Chouteaus involved with Fort Union actually had not a drop of Chouteau blood in them. He who would unravel this amazing family further should see Hariette Johnson Westbrook, "The Chouteaus and Their Commercial Enterprises," Chronicles of Oklahoma, 11 (1933), 786-97 and 942-66; Chittenden, 1, 113n; and William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, editors, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (New York, 1899).
9. Chittenden, 1, 331; Phillips, 2, 405-06.
10. Chittenden, 1, 380-81. Although Crooks became Pratte's son-in-law, this did not lessen a dislike for Pratte that Astor developed.
11. At this time McKenzie signed his name in this manner. Later in life he changed it to Mackenzie. See Annie Heloise Abel, Chardon's Journal at Fort Clark, 1834-1839 (Pierre, S.D., 1932), p. 273, note 267.
12. Phillips, 2, 407-09. Other members of the Columbia Fur Company were William Laidlaw, James Kipp, Joseph Renville, Honore Picotte, and Daniel Lamont.
13. Ramsay Crooks Papers, Detroit Public Library, Photostat of letter from Ramsay Crooks to Kenneth McKenzie, Aug. 30, 1826.
14. Ibid, Crooks to Astor, May 24, 1827.
15. Ibid, Crooks to Astor, July 6, 1827.
16. The organization and the relationships between the posts is fully discussed in Phillips, 2, 417-19; and Chittenden, 1, 327-28.
17. Crooks Papers, Detroit Public Library, Crooks to Astor, Aug. 10, 1827.
18. Westbrook, Chronicles of Oklahoma, 11, 790-95; Hyde, Encyclopedia, 1, 363-65; Chittenden, 1, 366-67 and 381-82; DeVoto, p. 69.
19. Chouteau Collections, Missouri Historical Society, Envelope for Aug.-Dec., 1865, letter, Crooks to Chouteau, Sep. 14, 1828; see also Chittenden, 1, 328, who gives the last inventory date as Dec. 5, 1827.
Chapter 2
2. Russell Reid and Clell G. Gannon, editors, "Journal of the Atkinson-O'Fallon Expedition", North Dakota Historical Quarterly, 4 (1929), 41 and 41n; and Phillips, 2, 398.
3. James Kipp was one of the associates who remained with McKenzie in the Upper Missouri Outfit. He was born in Montreal, P.Q. His first experience in the fur trade was in the Red River area. By 1818, he was on the Missouri. He had a long career on the Missouri, not retiring until 1865. He was well liked by the various Indians, and he developed the reputation of fort builder. See Ray H. Mattison, "James Kipp," in Hafen, pp. 201-05; and Abel, p. 225, note 80.
4. Chittenden, 2, 933, quoting from a letter written by McKenzie at Fort Tecumseh, March 15, 1829: "Your favor of the 5th of December [1828] reached me on the 25th ult., the date of my arrival from Fort Floyd near the Yellowstone."
5. Chittenden, 2, 933. This translation is by the writer.
6. Chouteau Collections, Missouri Historical Society (hereafter cited as Chouteau Coll., Mo. HS), Folder 1829, Aug.-Sep., William Laidlaw, Ft. Tecumseh, Aug. 13 and Oct. 26, 1829, to Pierre Chouteau, Jr. Chittenden described William Laidlaw as a severe man with a tyrannical temper, but, who was, next to McKenzie, the best trader in the old Columbia Fur Co. He was in charge of Ft. Tecumseh, later rebuilt and rechristened as Ft. Pierre. Chittenden, 1, 385-86.
7. Reuben Gold Thwaites, editor, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, 22, "Maximilian," p. 376.
8. Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and His Journals (2 vols., New York, 1960), 2, 181.
9. Chouteau Coll., Mo. HS, Folder Jan.-May, 1830, K. McKenzie, Ft. Union, to "Gentleman in charge of Fort Tecumseh," May 5, 1830. The first time the name Fort Union has been found in the account books of the American Fur Co. was under the date of Aug. 7, 1830, in an account for the UMO. See Mo. HS, American Fur Co. Account Book "R," April 1829-Nov. 1832, p. 211, UMO, 1830.
10. Five miles is an arbitrary distance. Most visitors in the early days gave a figure in that vicinity, often as not at 6 miles. Today, the distance is only about 3 miles. This variation is still, and was moreso then, caused by the meanders of both streams within their valleys.
11. The Missouri then, and still, wandered freely from one side of the "bottoms" to the other. However, it apparently was fairly stable in the vicinity of Fort Union. The records mention only one time when boats had to tie up at some distance from the fort. Today, the river is about 400 yards to the south.
12. Rudolph Friederich Kurz, Journal of Rudolph Friederich Kurz, translated by Myrtis Jarrell, edited by J. N. B. Hewitt (Washington, 1937), p. 168
Chapter 3
1. Chittenden, 1, 329; Michael S. Kennedy, ed., The Red Man's West. . . . (New York, 1965), p. 92.
2. Chouteau Papers, Wisconsin Hist. Soc., photostat of letter, Laidlaw to Chouteau, Aug. 13, 1829. Métis--a mixed blood, in this case usually of French Canadian and Indian descent; engagé--a laborer under contract. (Ramsay Crooks firmly believed that the best engagés were French Canadians); mangeur du lard--pork eater, anyone new in the fur trade on western waters.
3. Louis C. Butscher, "A Brief Biography of Prince Paul Wilhelm of W¨rttemberg (1797-1860), New Mexico Historical Review, 17 (July 1942), 181-93; and in the same publication, "An Account of Adventures . . .," 193-216, continued in volume 17 (October 1942), 294-344. Prince Paul was a nephew of King Frederick I of W¨rttemberg, Paul I of Russia, and (by marriage) Jerome Bonaparte; cousin to Nicholas I and Alexander I of Russia, and Queen Victoria of England, and others. He made four trips to the United States, of which his one visit to Fort Union occurred during the second trip.
4. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Folder 1830, Jan.-May, "Paul, Prince of W¨rttembergh in Ac. with Fort Union."
6. Ibid., Folder 1833, March-April, William Backhouse Astor (quoting his father) to Pierre Chouteau, Jr., March 30, 1833.
7. Pierre Jean De Smet, S. J., Life, Letters and Travels. . . 1801-1873, ed. by H. M. Chittenden and A. T. Richardson, 3, 1132. De Smet was not at Ft. Union at this time; he heard the story from E. T. Denig and an engage.
9. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1832, Jan.-Feb., McKenzie to D. D. Mitchell, Feb. 4, 1832. McKenzie wrote that the fire occurred on the "3rd Inst." thus implying February 3. However, later in the letter he mentioned five days following the fire. Either the fire was in January or McKenzie took more than five days to write the letter that he dated Feb. 4.
10. Chittenden, 1, 103-09. Two thousand miles is a round figure. A U. S. Engineers Survey in 1890 found the distance then to be 1,792 miles. It was probably longer in the 1830's because of more bends in the river. See Bernard DeVoto, Across the Wide Missouri (Boston, 1947), p. 429.
11. This is another of the several frustrations in dating major events at Fort Union. George Catlin said the boat arrived June 26; Chittenden has shown that it was earlier by at least a few days. Chittenden, 1, 339.
12. John Sanford was the technical owner of Dred Scott at the time of the latter's famous court case in 1856.
13. Audubon sprinkled his diary with criticisms of Catlin. Kurz said that Catlin was a "Yankee humbug," whose drawings were in bad taste.
14. Thomas Donaldson, The George Catlin Indian Gallery in the U. S. National Museum. . . (Washington, 1887), plate 5, p. 8.
15. George Catlin, A Descriptive Catalogue of Catlin's Indian Gallery. . . (London, 1840), p. 36. No. 388 shows the post. The original is today in the Catlin Collection, Smithsonian Institution. In this same source, p. 6, is a testimonial by Kenneth McKenzie as to the accuracy of Catlin's work.
16. John C. Ewers, "George Catlin, Painter of Indians and the West," Annual Report. . . of the Smithsonian Institution, 1955 (Washington, 1956), p. 493.
17. Charles Larpenteur, Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri. . . 1833-1872. (2 vols. in 1, Minneapolis, 1962), pp. 84n and 85n; Chittenden, 1, 387.
18. George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the. . . North American Indians (2 vols., London, 1842), 1, 14 and 21-38. Later visitors supported Catlin's observations of the fort's operations, except for the 12-pounder. Denig reported in 1843 that the northeast bastion had one 3-pounder and one swivel gun; while the southwest bastion had but one swivel gun. Audubon, 2, 181-82.
19. Astor Papers, Baker Library, Harvard, vol. 44, copy of letter, Astor, Bellevue, France, to Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Sep.28, 1832; Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Folder 1832, Sep.-Dec., Crooks to Chouteau, Nov. 16, 1832.
21. Larpenteur, p. 60; George R. Brooks, ed., "The Private Journal of Robert Campbell," The Bulletin, Missouri Historical Society, 20 (1963), 6-24 and 107-18. In this brief but valuable journal, Campbell gives many construction details. The pickets, rafted down the river, were 18 feet long, hewn on one side, and averaging 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Rock for the chimneys was found 3 miles from the fort. The roofs were covered with dirt. A rock-lined well, about 25 feet deep was dug inside the stockade. This well was a necessity because of the long distance to the river; Fort Union, on the other hand, got its water directly from the Missouri.
22. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Folder 1833, July-Aug., Hamilton to Chouteau, Aug. 31, 1833.
23. Brooks, pp. 22, 107, 108, and 115.
25. Phillips, 2, 425, quoting McKenzie to D. D. Mitchell, Jan. 31, 1834. See also Chouteau Coll., Ft. Union Letter Book, McKenzie to Kipp, Dec. 13, 1833.
26. Phillips, 2, 428-29, quoting Chouteau to McKenzie, Apr. 8, 1834.
31. O. A. Stevens, "Maximilian in North Dakota, 1833-34," North Dakota History, 28 (1961), 163-64; Abel, p. 235, n. 110.
32. Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels (Vols. 22-25, Cleveland, 1906). Volumes 22-24 contain Maximilian, Prince of Wied's Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834; volume 25 comprises the series of paintings done by Charles Bodmer on these travels. For this account, see 22, 373-88; 23, 11-27 and 188-207; and 24, 317; Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Ft. Union Letter Book, Hamilton to Kipp, Oct. 29, 1833.
33. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Folder 1832, Sep.-Dec., Crooks to Chouteau, Nov. 16, 1832.
35. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Ft. Union Letter Book, McKenzie to W. B. Astor, Dec. 16, 1833.
36. Ibid. See also, McKenzie to Joshua Pilcher, bourgeois, Council Bluffs, Dec. 16, 1833.
37. F. G. Young, editor, "The Correspondence and Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth, 1831-6," Sources of the History of Oregon (Vol. 1, Parts 3-6, Eugene, 1899), p. 212, entry for Aug. 24, 1833.
39. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Ft. Union Letter Book, McKenzie to Mitchell, Jan. 21, 1834.
41. While Chittenden, 1, 446, says this was Milton Sublette, William's brother, it would seem that it was William, who went down about this time because of illness. I have found no record of Milton being in the area.
42. Ellsworth went on to become the first U.S. Commissioner of Patents and is called the "father" of the Department of Agriculture. Allen Johnson, ed., Dictionary of American Biography (20 vols., New York, 1943), 6, 110-11. Hereafter cited as DAB.
43. Indians Coll., Mo. H.S., Copy of letter, Henry L. Ellsworth, Ft. Leavenworth, to E. Herring, Indian Commissioner, Washington, D. C., Nov. 8, 1833
44. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Folder 1834, Jan.-March, Crooks to Chouteau, Feb. 23, 1834.
45. Ibid., Ft. Union Letter Book, McKenzie to Chouteau, March 18, 1834.
48. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Ft Union Letter Book, (McKenzie?) to H. Picott, Dec. 15, 1833; and McKenzie to M.Belhumeux, Dec. 10, 1835, ordering a soldering iron for the tinsmith.
49. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Ft. Union Letter Book, Hamilton to McKenzie, Sep. 17, 1834.
52. Larpenteur, 72-73; and "Journals," 1, 1834-37. In 1837, he noted that Indians "got over the pickets of the old fort" in an attempt to steal the horses.
54. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Folder 1832, June-Aug., Astor, Paris, to Chouteau, August 1832.
55. Ibid., Ft. Union Letter Book, McKenzie to Sam Tulloch, Jan. 8, 1834.
56. Ibid., Folder 1834, Sep.-Dec., Ft. McKenzie, to McKenzie, Ft. Union, Sep. 5, 1834.
57. Ibid., Folder 1828, Aug.-Dec., Crooks to Chouteau, Nov. 18, 1828.
58. Ibid., Folder 1834, Sep.-Dec., W. B. Astor to Chouteau, Dec. 31, 1834; Chittenden, 1, 365.
Chapter 4
2. Abel, p. 300, note 371, quoting Hamilton, July 17, 1835.
3. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Ft. Union Letter Book, Hamilton to McKenzie, March 29, 1835.
4. Ibid., Hamilton to McKenzie, July 4, 1835.
5. This description, except where noted, is from Charles Larpenteur, Journals, Vol. 1, 1834-37, Minnesota Historical Society.
6. Audubon, 2, 183-84. At that time, 1835-43, the fort had a screw-type fur press. A press of this type could well have been in side the press room. In later years, see illustrations, Fort Union had a very large robe press outside its walls. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Ft. Union Letter Book, unsigned letter to Pierre Chouteau, Jr. & Co., Dec. 10, 1835: "If you have an Iron Screw with fixings not in use that could be made serviceable here for preparing Robes, please to send it."
7. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Ft. Union Letter Book, Hamilton to Daniel Lamont, July 17, 1835.
8. Larpenteur, pp.87-90; Chouteau Coll., Mo. H.S., Folder 1835, Jan.-Dec., Hamilton to Laidlaw, Aug. 25, 1835. A year or so later, a one-day civil war broke out between the Deschamps family on one side and most of the employees of Fort Union on the other. The Deschamps holed up in the old buildings at Fort William. McKenzie, on demand, let his men take a small cannon for their attack. By the end of the day, all the Deschamps were dead, from either bullets or fire, and several of Fort William's buildings lay in ashes.
9. Larpenteur, pp. 83-84. No other reference to this, in the Chouteau Collection or elsewhere, has been found.
10. De Smet, 3, 1183. De Smet was led to believe that a double gate existed at this time. Actually, it was not constructed until 1837.
11. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Ft Union Letter Book, McKenzie to Prince Maximilian, Dec. 10, 1835.
12. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1837, June-July, Denig to Jacob Halsey, Mar. 25, 1837.
13. Abel, pp. 394-96; Larpenteur, pp. 183-87; Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1837, Halsey, "Report on Small-Pox Epidemic," for Pratte, Chouteau & Co., Nov. 2, 1837.
14. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1837, July-Dec., Mitchell to Papin, Dec. 1, 1837.
15. Abel, p. 396; Larpenteur, p. 135.
16. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1838, Jan.-Feb., Hamilton to Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Feb. 25, 1838. This letter also contains a description of the effects of the smallpox on the various tribes and bands on the upper Missouri. According to Chittenden, 1, 391, poor Halsey got drunk on a visit to Liberty, Mo., in 1842, and set out for a fast horseback ride through the woods. A tree branch hit him on the head and he died instantly.
17. Pratte, Chouteau, and Co. became Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and Company in 1838. The reorganized company, finding the robe trade a profitable replacement for the greatly reduced beaver trade, expanded its operations on the upper Missouri. Between 1839 and 1842 its capital investment on the upper river rose from $30,000 to $60,000; its trading force increased from 90 to 130 men; and the number of posts from 14 to 18. See John E. Sunder, The Fur Trade on the Upper Missouri, 1840-65 (Norman, 1965), p. 31.
19. De Smet was at Fort Union in 1840, 1841, 1851, 1859, 1862, 1863, and 1867.
20. De Smet, 1, 244; Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Vol. 27, De Smet's Letters and Sketches, 1841-1906), p. 149.
21. John Francis McDermott, ed., Up the Missouri With Audubon, The Journal of Edward Harris (Norman, 1951), p. 113.
22. Chittenden, Fur Trade, 1, 369.
23. Joseph A. Sire, Log Book, 1843. The Mo. H. S. has Captain Sire's log books for every year between 1841 and 1847. See also Audubon, 2, 29.
24. O. A. Stevens, "Audubon's Journey Up the Missouri River, 1843," North Dakota Historical Society, 10 (Jan. 1943-Oct. 1943), 74-75; John Francis McDermott, ed., Audubon in the West (Norman, 1965), pp. 10 and 10n.
25. Audubon's and Harris' diaries have already been cited. Isaac Sprague's diary is today in the Library of the Boston Athenaeum. Mr. Isaac Sprague, Jr., today owns one of his grandfather's pen and wash sketches of Fort Union. Audubon's letters appear in McDermott, Audubon in the West.
27. At Fort Union, Audubon hired Etienne Provost as a guide. Provost had been in the fur country for more than thirty years and was one of the claimants for the discovery of South Pass. McDermott, Harris, pp. 98 and 98n.
28. Audubon, 2, 34-35; McDermott, Harris, p. 101. Harris listed the musicians as: Culbertson on violin, Denig on clarinet, and Chardon on drum.
29. Audubon, 2, 22, 31, 38, 40-41, 57, 77, 108-10, 137, and 182; McDermott, Audubon, 119; and Sprague, "Diary."
31. McDermott, Harris, pp. 98, 98n, 101, 102, 113, 117, 121, 125, 127, 131, 142, 151, and 169.
32. Sprague, "Diary;" Isaac Sprague, Jr., "Isaac Sprague, 1811-1895," 8 pp., a biography of his grandfather.
34. McKenzie Papers, Mo. H. S., K. McKenzie to his wife, Oct. 8 and 27, 1844; and petition of K. McKenzie for his share in Pierre Chouteau, Jr., & Co., St. Louis, Circuit Court, Co. of St. Louis. Perhaps more of this trip would be known had not McKenzie's house burned and destroyed nearly all his personal papers.
Chapter 5
1. Larpenteur p. 211; Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1844, Laidlaw to P. Chouteau Jr. & Co., Dec. 18, 1844.
2.Forest and Stream, (1908), p. 49, and (1908), p. 212; Alexander Hunter Murray, Journal of the Yukon, 1847-48, ed. by L. J. Burpee, Publications of the Canadian Archives--No. 4 (Ottawa, 1910), pp. 1-5.
3. Nicholas Point, S. J., Wilderness Kingdom, Indian Life in the Rocky Mountains: 1840-1847. . . Translated by Joseph P. Donnelly, S. J. (New York, 1967), p. 8.
4. At this time, Honore Picotte was in charge of the Upper Missouri Outfit; he had his headquarters at the larger Ft. Pierre rather than at the better built Ft. Union.
5. John Palliser, The Solitary Hunter, or, Sporting Adventures in the Prairies (London, 1856), pp. 79-99, 149, and 207-10.
6. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Ft. Pierre Letter Book, 1845-46. Picotte to Kipp, Dec. 18, 1846. Picotte also noted that the UMO's return for the past year was 32,000 robes.
7. Chouteau Coll., Folder 1846, H. H. Sibley, Mendota, to P. Chouteau, Jr. and Co., Feb. 23, and July 6, 1846; Sunder, p. 113.
8. Sunder, pp. 87-95. This was Alexander Harvey who had shot and killed a man in the retail store at Fort Union in 1840. Harvey was one of those who were active in getting the liquor suits pressed against Chouteau.
9. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1849, Ft. Pierre Letter Book, 1849-50, letter, unsigned and undated. The initials AC appear, possibly Alexander Culbertson. The letter appears in the midst of others dated in August: "Fort Union is left just as it should be with 5 or 6 men which is sufficient to do all necessary work."
10. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1849, Denig to Culbertson, Dec. 1, 1849.
11. Thaddeus A. Culbertson, Journal of an Expedition to the Mauvaises Terres and the Upper Missouri in 1850, edited by John Francis McDermott, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 147 (Washington, 1952), p. 105.
14. Rudolph Friederich Kurz, Journal of Rudolph Friederich Kurz. . ., translated by Myrtis Jarrell, edited by J. N. B. Hewitt, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 115 (Washington, 1937) pp. 120, 122, 126, and 210; Edwin Thompson Denig, Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri, ed. by John C. Ewers (Norman, 1961), xxiv-xxv In 1847, Father Point had reproached Denig for having two wives. At that point, Denig had put a quick stop to Point's hitherto unfettered efforts to instill his sense of morality. However, in 1856, Denig formally married his younger wife, and she went to Canada with him when he retired in 1858.
18. Kurz, pp. 224, 239, 302 & 329.
19. Ibid., pp. 120-21, 137, 200, and 243.
20. This sketch, dated Sep. 19, 1851, was located in the collection of Nicholas Point sketches at St. Louis University. Apparently sometime later Denig or someone had given this sketch to Father De Smet who took it back to St. Louis. There it got mixed in with Father Point's work and has been filed with his ever since.
21. Kurz, pp. 121-22, 127-30, 133, 137, 141, and 292.
22. Ibid., pp. 156 and 159; Audubon, 2, 185.
25. Ibid., pp. 134, 243, and 247-48; John C. Ewers, Artists of the Old West (New York, 1965), p. 144.
27. Ibid., pp. 223, 226, and 240-41.
28. Ibid, pp. 121, 124, and 126.
30. Ibid., pp. 122, 124, 159, 201, 293, and 305.
32. Ibid., pp. 110, 123, and 229.
Chapter 6
1. House Documents, 36th Cong., 1st Sess., Ex. Doc. No. 56, v. 12, 70-71; Kennedy, p. 216. The description of the party's arrival is from Robert Taft, Artists and Illustrators of the Old West, 1850-1900 (New York, 1953), pp. 17-18. Taft believes the author of the description to have been Elwood Evans.
3. Lt. G. K. Warren, Preliminary Report of Explorations in Nebraska and Dakota. . . 1855--'56--'57 (Washington, 1875), pp. 15-16.
4. F. V. Hayden, Contributions to the Ethnography and Philology of the Indian Tribes of the Missouri Valley (Philadelphia, 1862), p. 387: Gens du Gauche, 100 lodges; Gens du Lac, 60 lodges; Gens des Roches, 50 lodges; Gens des Filles, 60 lodges; Gens des Canots, 220 lodges; Gens du Nord, 30-50 lodges. Each lodge represented 4 persons.
5. Edwin Hatch Papers, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minn.
6. John C. Ewers, "Literate Fur Trader, Edwin Thompson Denig, " Montana Magazine of History 4 (Spring 1954), 1-9.
7. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1858-59; Kipp to P. Chouteau, Jr. and Co., Jan. 29, 1857.
9. James B. Musick, "Three Sketch Books of Carl Weimar," [sic] Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St. Louis, 27 (1942), 10-14; William R. Hodges, Carl Wimar, A Biography (Galveston, 1908), pp. 11, 17, and 21-23; Wimar Sketch Books and Sketches, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Mo.; Taft, p. 42.
11. Senate Documents, 40th Cong., 1st Sess., Ex. Doc. No. 77, pp. 114, 145-47.
12. John Mason Brown, "A Trip to the Northwest in 1861," The Wilson History Quarterly, 24 (1950), 128 and 219. The Chippewa exploded before reaching Fort Benton. Sister Dolorita Marie Dougherty, "A History of Fort Union (North Dakota), 1829-1867," pp. 154-56, describes Meldrum as a white man who was in the fur trade 36 years and eventually became a "long hair." He died at Fort Union in 1865.
13. Taft, p. 52; W. H. Schieffelin, "Crossing the Rockies in 61," Recreation, 3 (1895), 14-17; George Bird Grinnell, "Recollections of the Old West, Appreciation of. . . William de le Montagne Cary," The American Museum Journal, 17 (1917), 333-34.
14. Chouteau Coll., Mo. H. S., Folder 1860-65, P. Chouteau & Co. to Chas. Primeau, Feb. 6, 1861.
15. James Harkness, "Diary of James Harkness, of the Firm of La Barge, Harkness and Company," Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana 2 (1896), 343 and 347.
16. Henry A. Boller, Among the Indians, Eight Years in the Far West, 1858-1866 (Philadelphia, 1868), pp. 369-86.
17. Robert G. Athearn, Forts of the Upper Missouri (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1967), p. 89; Raymond L. Welty, "The Frontier Army on the Missouri River, 1860-1870," North Dakota Historical Quarterly 2 (1927-28), 88-89.
18. Robert M. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865 (New York, 1967), pp. 274-78; Robert H. Jones The Civil War in the Northwest (Norman, 1960), p. 75; Joseph Mills Hanson, The Conquest of the Missouri Being the Story of the Life and Exploits of Captain Grant Marsh Chicago, 1909), pp. 55-60; Athearn, pp. 140-43.
19. Utley, p. 279; Athearn, p. 143. Although some accounts have the Wisconsin Volunteers arriving at Ft. Union as early as April, Larpenteur's journal indicates clearly they arrived in June aboard the Yellowstone.
20. "Iowa Troops in the Sully Campaigns," The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, 20 (1922), 427; Overholt Papers, 1863-1864, Minnesota Historical Society.
21. Athearn, p. 144; Douglas C. McMurtrie, "Pioneer Printing in North Dakota," North Dakota Historical Quarterly, 6 (1931-1932), 222-26 and 222n. The first edition of the Frontier Scout complained about the awful smells at Ft. Union and asked Larpenteur to improve the sanitation.
22. H. M. Chittenden, History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River. . . (2 vols., New York, 1903), 2, 264; D. Alexander Brown, The Galvanized Yankees (Urbana, 1963), pp. 73, 91, and 109.
23. The lieutenant and his men left on August 30.
24. Except where indicated, all this material came from Charles Larpenteur, "Journal, 1864-1866," Minnesota Historical Society; and Larpenteur, p. 377.
25. Sunder, pp. 260-62; Larpenteur, p. 366.
26. Hubbell Papers, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, folder, "Letters, Accounts, Legal Papers, Undated." The quotation was found written in the margin of Hubbell's personal copy of Chittenden, Early Steamboating, 1, 239, and was signed "J. B. H." Most references to the company found in the Hubbell Papers called it the North Western Fur Company or N. W. F. Co. Other names popularly assigned included Northwestern Fur Co., Northwest Fur Co., and North West Fur Co. See Lucile M. Kane, "New Light on the Northwestern Fur Company," Minnesota History 34 (1955), 325n.
27. Hubbell Papers. Minn. H. S., folder, "Misc. Notes & Clippings," photostat of St. Louis Dispatch, Aug. 3, 1901, an article by John B. Hubbell, "Trading With the Indians," and folder, "Affidavits to Hubbell's Claim, 1900-1903."
28. Gregory, Bruguier and Gregory Papers, and Hubbell Papers, folder, "Misc. Notes and Clippings," Minn. H. S.
29. Athearn, pp. 226-27; Washington Matthews, Asst. Surg., U. S. A., "A Medical History of Fort Union."
30. Granville Stuart, Diary and Sketchbook of a Journey to 'America' in 1866. . . (Los Angeles, 1963), p. 34.
32. Larpenteur, "Journal, 1864-66." The old flag staff had long since disappeared. The lightning struck a shorter staff mounted on a tower.
33. Hubbell Papers, Minn. H. S., Affidavits re Claims, 1900-1903, Affidavit by Charles W. Hoffman. See also Athearn, pp. 232-34.
35. Larpenteur, pp. 388-89. Larpenteur was backed at this time by the firm of Durfee and Peck of St. Louis.
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