Fur Traders and Trail Blazers (Part IV)
by Merrill J. Mattes
During the peak season emigrants camped in Robidoux Pass in great numbers; one emigrant counted three hundred wagons camped here one evening. At the same time many emigrants abandoned their overloaded wagons here and made their way further west by pack animals, so the Robidouxs had easy pickings in cast-off merchandise. Inevitably, some emigrants complained about the high prices but here in the wilderness they were blessed with valuable, even life-saving services by these entrepreneurs from Saint Joseph, Missouri.
Many observers simply refer to the traders or blacksmiths as “Spaniards”. Most refer to them as “Frenchmen”. Sometimes just one is mentioned, and sometimes two, but A. H. Thomason in 1850 speaks of “6 or 8 Frenchmen with squaws”. The trading license for 1851 describes Michel and Isadore as “assistant traders”, and Joseph E. and the younger Antoine as “clerks”. I would judge that clerks were the ones who occupied the post, for the most part, while traders would be the ones who were in the field, dickering with the Indians for robes, or on the open road heading east with cargo. Fortunately, a few sources make positive identification by giving first names. Thus it is not surprising to learn that Joseph E. and his cousin Antoine were the two “Frenchmen” most often referred to here.
This Antoine, brother of Joseph III, famous for his exploits in Santa Fe and in California, merits a closer look here in terms of the Oregon-California Trail because there is evidence that he played a major role in inspiring the Bidwell-Bartleson expedition of 1841, “the first emigrant train”. John Bidwell says that in 1840 he met “a Frenchman named Roubideaus” who had been to California and described it as “in the superlative degree favorable”. Antoine’s biographer says nothing about him appearing in California before 1846, but the biographer of Louis Robidoux identifies Antoine the elder as the one who first went to California. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in 1849 the elder Antoine is identified by A. J. McCall as guide to an emigrant train of 137 wagons, let by “Captain King of Ohio”, both of these men being “veterans of the Mexican War”.
In 1849 there seemed to be Robidouxs from one end of the trail to the other, beginning with Joseph III or “old man Robidoux” in Saint Joseph. August Burbank calls the 1849 wagon train guide mentioned above as “Anthony Robidoux of St. Joe”, and later notes a different “Rubedoe” at Scotts Bluffs. Later still, at the Green River crossing, he mentions yet another unidentified and misspelled Robidoux who, deplorably, “profaned our Lord’s name continually”. To use the vernacular, these guys seemed to be all over the place!
Finally, we take a look at identifiable Robidouxs on the train, ushering hide trains to Saint Joseph. In 1849, Elijah P. Howell noted Isadore Robidoux at Plum Creek. Joseph H. Johnson described this same outfit as six ox-wagons with “3.000 buffalo skins”. That same year Captain Ruff, Fort Kearny commander, entrusted some mail to “Francis Robideaux, brother of old man Robidoux”.
In 1850 William T. Parker tells of another Robidoux “with 6 carts and a buggy for himself”, probably the same “old French trader” whom W. S. McBride says “we met this side of Fort Kearny”. That same year James Arrington met three separate buffalo hide trains, one belonging to the Scotts Bluffs Robidouxs, one to “Chouteau” of the American Fur Company, and one sent by “Ward and Company from the mountains”, proving that not all hide caravans belonged to the Saint Joseph people; these other hides were destined for Saint Louis.
In 1852, Joseph C. Terrell, on the little Blue, encountered Michel “Rheubedeaut” with yet more robes for Saint Joseph. This same outfit is described by John Clark of Virginia as eighteen Creaking wagons piled high with robes, escorted by “a black and greasy crowd”. Chester Smith criticizes this outfit as having “the worst looking teams I ever saw and the most inhuman drivers”. One thing about a Robidoux caravan on the trail - it was not a thing of beauty but it was something to remember!
In 1851 Mitchell Pass, within present Scotts Bluff National Monument, replaced Robidoux Pass as a way through the rugged encircling chain known as Scotts Bluffs. Probably in consequence of this development the Robidouxs abandoned their famous post of 1849 and 1850 and built a new one in Carter canyon, about one mile south of their pass. This was off the emigrant road and in 1851 there is little evidence of trade with emigrants here; it is believed an effort was made to concentrate once more on the Indian trade. However, in 1852 the Robidouxs again positioned themselves arthwart the emigrant road by occupying a place about one mile east of Mitchell Pass, near what would have been the junction of the old and new roads through the bluffs. For reasons unknown they later moved once more to Horse Creek, to the west of the bluffs, probably near where the old and new trails again joined to reach Fort Laramie.
The last reference to Robidoux post in western Nebraska is to be found in Richard Burton’s book, city of the Saints; “Passed a place called Robidoux’s fort, for the well known Indian trader of that name. It is now occupied by a Canadian or French Creole who, as usual with his race in these regions has taken unto himself a wife in the shape of a Sioux squaw.” It is not clear if this was a left-over Robidoux or a chance squatter. What is clear, however, is that the place Burton describes in 1860 was back at the junction of the old and new trails through Scotts Bluffs, to the ease, according to a crude sketch accompanying Burton’s narrative.
In summary, the Robidoux clan played a very important and colorful role in westward migration history, and Joseph III, the founder of Saint Joseph, was the dynamo behind their far-flung enterprise. Scenes at famous Robidoux Pass which enlivened the pages of countless overland diaries, and the caravans heading east with buffalo hides - sometimes accompanied by Indian travois columns, the whole gypsy-like circus panicking the emigrant oxen - are vivid images of a unique family of frontiersmen, based in Saint Joseph. They bridged the eras of fur trade and exploration and the great migrations which completed the conquest of a continent.
Merrill Mattes is a retired National Park Service historian. He is a co-founder of the Oregon-California Trails Association and has served continually on its board of directors since its inception. He has received national recognition as an authority on the overland migrations through his The Great Platte River Road and his latest book, Platte River Road Narratives. This account is reprinted by permission of the Overland Journal of the Oregon-California Trails Association.
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