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A few, those which were largest and erected in
the midst of hostile tribes, or as centers for the supply of minor posts,
were well fortified, surrounded with strong palisades, heavily manned by
organized fighting men, and, in one or two instances in the warlike
Sioux
country, even surmounted by small cannon. But the great majority consisted
only of a simple trading-store, with a few necessary buildings in which
the employees lived. Isolated for years from all contact with
civilization, and without even a visit to the East, surrounded by a savage
and oftentimes hostile population, their environment the vast Plains,
their business merely barter, the existence of these lonely men became a
dull, colorless routine, relieved only by such adventures as arose from
daily contact with wild life.
Development into Settlements
But, this was the beginning of permanent settlement, for each trading-post
required employees, the number varying with the importance of the post.
There were the trader and his clerk, wood-cutters and hay-makers, who were
also boatmen upon occasion, probably a few white trappers under contract,
with a worker or two in wood and iron. Sometimes, as at Fort Lisa,
opposite Council Bluffs, and some others of those larger posts up the
river, women braved the wilderness to be with the men they loved.
Certain posts became favorite resting-places for free trappers, while
others had a large number of paid hunters in their employ. Proper care for
such demanded the building of houses, usually of logs, sometimes of earth,
or even stone, and the gradual development of the
Indian trading-house
into a general store, where white as well as red could find their
necessities. The requirements of the frontier always included an abundance
of " red liquor," and the hardy dispenser thereof was not long delayed in
coming to the rescue of the thirsty. So, little by little, most of these
earlier trading-posts changed into ugly, straggling settlements, their
inhabitants at first mere wanderers, the faces changing with each season;
as one disappeared into the unknown, another came drifting out of it to
fill the vacancy. Roustabouts from the river boats, tired or dissatisfied
voyageurs, hunters from off the Plains, adventurers, vagabonds, the scum
of the frontier, came and went, yet always a few lingered on in stolid
content, until out from the great East began to arrive those first daring
settlers of a new country, with wives and children, horses and ploughs,
seeking a permanent home where land was cheap, and where manhood counted
for more than dollars.
Settlements Become Towns
This was, in brief, the story of the beginning, the tale of a hundred
towns now dotting the western banks of the Missouri, or looking down in
peaceful content upon the waters of the Kansas, the Platte, the Niobrara,
and many another stream between -- the
Indian trader, the wanderer, the
settler; the gradual change from lonely post to prosperous village. The
later advance westward was fairly rapid
for the first one hundred and fifty miles. For that distance the prairies
were inviting, the growth of grasses and timber along the bottoms gave
abundant promise of other crops, the rainfall seemed sufficient, and the
Indian
tribes remained peaceful.
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