Unlike their rivals,
Hudson's Bay
Company and the
American Fur
Company, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company built no forts or trading posts, as
their men worked independently. However, the company held "rendezvous"
every summer, gathering their men in various locations, where they could
gather the pelts. It was also a chance for the mountain men to relax and
enjoy themselves after long periods of working alone. They often held
their rendezvous near a
Hudson's Bay
Company post to draw off some of
their
Indian
trade. In 1826 Jedediah Smith, William and Milton Sublette and David
Jackson bought the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. They hired more mountain
men, some of which who would become the subject of many a dime novel, such
as
Jim Bridger,
Joe Meek,
Kit Carson
and Robert Newell. The company prospered for the next seven years until
the fur trade declined in the 1830s due to major declines in the beaver
population and the fact that beaver hats were going out of style, replaced
by hats made of silk.
John
Simpson Smith, aka: Uncle John, Blackfoot Smith (1812-1871) -
Trader and frontiersman, Smith ranged from
the
Yellowstone
to the Gila River, and from the upper Missouri to the Rio Grande Rivers.
He was born in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1810 and at the age of 18 joined a
party of
Santa Fe
traders. By 1830, he was trapping in the Rocky Mountains and when he saved
himself from Blackfoot Indians by using trickery, he earned the nickname
Blackfoot Smith. Somewhere along the line he married a
Cheyenne
woman and in 1843 was at Fort Laramie, Wyoming and
in 1846, at
Bent's
Fort,
Colorado.
Smith, who spoke four
Indian
dialects, as well as French and Spanish, served as an interpreter for the
Fort Laramie treaty council in 1851. He served briefly as a guide for the
army's Utah Expedition of 1857. He was a pioneer founder of Denver,
Colorado
and by 1862, was living at Fort Lyon,
Colorado.
In 1864, acting as an interpreter, he helped to persuade Black Kettle and
his
Cheyenne
followers to camp at Sand Creek,
Colorado.
Before the
Chivington Massacre occurred there on November 29th, Smith did
everything in his power to prevent it and during the massacre, Smith's
son, Jack was killed and John narrowly escaped death, himself. Afterwards,
he again served as an interpreter at the Little Arkansas council and
accompanied the
Cheyennes
to their new reservation in
Indian Territory, where he lived until he died
on June 29, 1871.
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Tom Tate Tobin
(1823-1904) - A frontiersman, trapper, mountain man, scout and guide,
Tobin was born at
St. Louis,
Missouri
on March 15, 1823. When he was just 14 years-old, he traveled west with
his half-brother, Charles Autobees to Taos,
New Mexico in
1837. There, he worked as a trapper, as well as sometimes working at a
store at Arroyo Hondo. Later, he worked as a trapper and scout at Bent's
Fort,
Colorado. In
1846, he married Pascuala Bernal and the two settled at Arroyo Hondo, near
Taos,
New Mexico.
In the Taos Pueblo Revolt in January, 1847, he narrowly escaped being
killed. Through the years, he continued to work as a guide and scout,
making the acquaintance of other frontiersman, such as
Kit Carson,
Uncle Dick Wootton, Ceran St. Vrain,
Charles Bent,
John C.
Fremont,
Wild Bill Hickok, and
William F. Cody, and the Shoup
brothers. By, 1853, his talents as a mountain man were so highly regarded,
that he guided the Beale expedition from the Gunnison River to
California.
Some ten years later, in September, 1863, he was sent along with a
detachment of soldiers to track down and eliminate the notorious outlaws,
Felipe and
Julian Espinosa. Returning to
Fort
Garland,
Colorado with
the desperados' heads in a sack, he never received the full $2,500 reward
offered.
In November, 1868, Tobin was
appointed by General Penrose as chief scout on an Indian-hunting campaign
where he worked along two other scouts, including his half-brother,
Charles Autobee and "Wild Bill" Hickok. In the meantime, his daughter,
Pascualita, had grown up and married William "Billy" Carson, Kit's son in
1878. Later, when Tobin found out that Billy was abusing his wife, he went
after his son-in-law to avenge the beating, but instead, was shot by Billy
Carson. Though Tobin survived, he never fully recovered from his wound,.
However, he did outlive Billy by many years.
Tobin died on May 16, 1904 and was buried at
Fort
Garland,
Colorado.
Pierre
Louis Vasquez (1798-1868) - Born in
St. Louis,
Missouri on October 3,
1798, Vasquez grew up to become a fur trapper and trader, receiving his first license to trade with the
Pawnee
Indians. By the early 1830's he had moved westward into the Rocky
Mountains where he established one of the first trading posts at the mouth of Clear Creek in
Colorado
in 1835. Working with Andrew Sublette, the post did a brisk business for
fur pelts with the
Indians. Soon, however, three more trading posts were
established in the region and the competition became fierce. In 1841, he
sold out his interest in Fort Vasquez and soon met up with
Jim Bridger. Two years later, the pair built Fort
Bridger on the Black Fork of the Green River in
Wyoming. The
operation was not only an active trading post but soon became a popular
stopping point on the
Oregon Trail.
In 1846, Vasquez returned to
St. Louis,
where he married a widow by the name Narcissa Land Ashcraft. The pair
returned to Fort Bridger for a time before moving on to Salt Lake City,
Utah in 1855,
where Vasquez opened a store. He and Bridger sold the fort in 1858.
Vasquez retired back in his home state of
Missouri
and died in Westport on September 5, 1868.
William
Sherley "Old Bill" Williams (1787-1849) - A Mountain Man, explorer, army scout,
and frontiersman, Williams was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina on June
3, 1787. He moved with his family to
St. Louis,
Missouri
in 1795. When he grew up, he became a traveling preacher, before moving on
to become a trapper and frontiersman, where he earned the nicknames of Old
Solitaire or just Old Bill Williams. Early on, he lived among the Osage
Indians,
where he met and married his Indian wife. Early in the War of 1812, he
served as a sergeant and scout with the Mounted Rangers. Working as a
trapper and a trader, he also lived with the
Ute
Indians
for a time and mastered several Indian languages. Moving all over the west
he worked as far as
Yellowstone
country and
California,
and south in
Texas. By
1835, he was working mostly along the
Santa Fe
Trail. By 1837; however, he was in
Arizona,
exploring the
Colorado
River. In 1848, he joined
John C.
Fremont's fourth expedition at
Bent's
Fort,
Colorado as a
guide and was one of
Fremont's
favorites. Though Williams was well respected by
Fremont,
the latter disregarded the advice of Williams and led his group toward the
headwaters of the Rio Grande River, where most of the party perished of
cold and starvation. In 1849, while retracing parts of the expedition,
Williams was killed by
Ute
Indians
on March 21st.
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, © Updated July,
2008
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