Ceran St. Vrain

Image of Ceran St. Vrain

Public domain

Quick Facts

Significance:

influential fur trade merchant

Place of Birth:

St. Louis, MO

Date of Birth:

May 5, 1802

Place of Death:

Mora, New Mexico

Date of Death:

October 28, 1870

Place of Burial:

Mora, New Mexico

Cemetery Name:

St. Vrain Cemetery

Ceran St. Vrain was a multinational man of enterprise. Born in St. Louis in 1802, just before the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Ceran was Spanish by birth. As control of the territory changed, he became French and American by international treaty and purchase. In adulthood, he chose to be naturalized as a Mexican citizen.

The St. Vrain family had their origins in France. Jacques, Ceran’s father, had served as an officer in the French navy. Ceran’s parents married in St. Louis in 1796 and would grow to have ten children. The family rose to influence and witnessed early America’s expansion into the west.  Ceran’s uncle, Charles De Hault De Lassus, acted as lieutenant governor of the Louisiana territory from 1799-1803.

The St. Vrain family benefitted from political and financial connections much like Ceran's future partners, the Bents. Jacques owned several thousand acres of land and began a brewery outside St. Louis. Through fire and circumstance, the family finances had dwindled by the time Ceran was sixteen and his father had passed away. Setting the course of his future, Ceran went to live with and clerk for Bernard Pratte. Pratte was an influential merchant, fur-trader, and St. Louis official. There Ceran learned the business of fur trading as an accountant, merchant, and freighter.

By 1824, the Santa Fe Trail was a well-traveled commercial route. Pratte sent Ceran at twenty years of age from St. Louis to Santa Fe to gain first-hand experience in goods exchange. Not only did Ceran gain practice with goods and geography, but also with language. In 1825, Ceran wrote his mother “I can now talke engough to do my buisness without the aid of an interpreter.” This skill would prove invaluable for his future dealings in the southwest.

Within a few short years, Ceran had participated in several trapping and trading expeditions in northern Mexico. So frequent was his time in the region that he began his own family with Maria Dolores Luna in Taos. By 1830, Ceran directed operations and led several successful expeditions for the Pratte company. With the increasing decline of the beaver trade, one chance meeting would prove pivotal. Captain Ceran’s caravan of sixty wagons and 120 men included the brothers Charles and William Bent. Together these men forged a partnership that would essentially change the market and control commerce on the Santa Fe Trail.

Beginning in 1832, the Bent, St. Vrain & Company established multiple trading posts in Colorado, Texas, and Mexico. Ceran and Charles Bent managed operations in Mexico near the southern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. William Bent managed operations to the north along the U.S./Mexican border at Bent’s Fort. While many goods were imported and exported internationally, the company prospered primarily because of the buffalo robe trade.

By 1843, St. Vrain partnered with Cornelio Vigil to receive a significant land grant of four million acres. However, the political climate surrounding the U.S./Mexican War in 1846 had significant impacts on property rights and international trade. Concluding with an American victory, Ceran’s partner, Charles Bent, was appointed provisional governor of New Mexico. Unrest followed and in January of 1847, the Taos Revolt claimed the life of Charles. In response, Ceran organized over sixty men to assist US troops to put down the revolt. One hundred fifty insurgents were killed, about four hundred were captured, and twenty-eight sentenced to execution.

After the Bent, St. Vrain & Company dissolved in the 1850s, Ceran built a flour mill to supply the government posts of Fort Union and Fort Garland. He also published the Santa Fe Gazette, one of the first newspapers in the English language for the northern New Mexican territory.

While the St. Vrain family had its roots in France and its American start in the Missouri territory, Ceran’s influence lingers in areas decidedly southwest. It is seen in Colorado in forms such as St. Vrain Canyon, St. Vrain Creek, St. Vrain State Park and the St. Vrain School District as well as in New Mexico with the historic St. Vrain Mill, the St. Vrain Cemetery and the community of St. Vrain.