Lawrence County SDGenWeb
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Lawrence County SDGenWeb |
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| The great
British and American
Fur companies were the first civilized people to occupy the Territory
of Dakota. The earliest of these to establish posts on the upper
Missouri River was the Missouri Fur Company, organized at St. Louis,
Mo., in 1808. At the headquarters of this company was Manuel Lisa, a
Spanish gentleman, and it is probable that some of the Choteau family
were also connected with it. The company probably established trading
posts in Dakota about 1808-10. The American Fur Company, of which John Jacob Astor was president, was chartered in 1809. The Northwestern, another fur company, and the American were consolidated in 1811. During the war between Great Britain and the United States--1812-15--business was wholly suspended. The Great Pacific Company was organized after the war by Mr. Astor, and business operations were resumed by all the companies, whose employes penetrated all parts of the present Territory of Dakota, excepting the Black Hills. The oldest Fur Company in America was the Hudson bay Company, which was chartered by King Charles II. in 1670. About 1811 Lord Selkirk, a Scottish nobleman, was granted by this company a large tract of land lying on both sides of the Red River of the North and Extending as far south as the mouth of the Red Lake River. (At that time the boundary between the British and American possessions had not been established Lord Selkirk built a fort a Pembina, a short distance south of the present International line, about 1812. The first settler in this region was a French trader, who settled at Pembina about 1780. The authority for this statement is Mr. Keating, the historian of Major Long's expedition, which visited this region in 1823 and found the trader still living there. This was the first actual settlement by white men within the present limits of Dakota. The name Pembina, Mr. Keating says, is a corruption of the Chippewa Term Anepeminansipi, signifying Redberry River, bestowed on the Red River in consequence of the great abundance of a red berry growing along its bank. Lord Selkirk's fort remained at Pembina until 1823, when, finding it was on the American side of the boundary, it was torn down and mostly removed to the British side. The Columbia Fur Company was organized in 1822, among individuals formerly in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. Their principal establishment, or trading post, was on Lake Traverse at the head of the Red River, where Major Long found them in 1823. This point was then near to the eastern range of the buffalo, and the company sent to market annually great numbers of buffalo skins and "pemmican," a food prepared from buffalo meat and commonly used by hunters and traders in the northwest: We append a description of the manner of preparing this food from the journal of Major Long's expedition: "Pemmican is the meat of the buffalo prepared for preservation in the following manner: The flesh is cut into thin slices which are jerked (dried) in the sun or smoke, the latter being preferable. It is then dried before the fire until it becomes crisp, after which it is laid upon one stone and pounded with another fixed into a wooden handle. After it has been reduced into as fine powder as possible which is however, far from being very minute, it is mixed up with an equal weight of buffalo grease, or marrow fat poured on when hot and liquid. Before the mixture cools it is introduced into skin bags and well shaken, so that it may settle into a compact mass. Sometimes, in order to give it a pleasant taste, it is mixed with a sort of wild cherry, which is pounded and introduced stone and all." The Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies, under a consolidated arrangement made in 1821, explored and trafficked on the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. In 1826, a company called the Rocky Mountain Fur Company began sending trading expeditions up the Missouri River. In 1832 the old American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor became the dominant company in the Northwest. Under this come any Forts Cedar, George, Lookout, Pierre and others were constructed, and the fur trade became a permanent business in the Missouri valley. Several trading houses were also erected on the Dakota River by company of which J. Rencontre was a member. About 1829 Pierre Choteau, of St. Louis, built Fort Pierre on the right bank of the Missouri, some four miles above the present city of Pierre. The first steamers to ascend the Upper Missouri, as near as can be ascertained, were the Antelope and the Assiniboine, which came up under the conduct of Pierre Choteau, about 1830. Their advent created no little surprise among the Indians. Previous to this and the business of the river had been carried on in canoes and barges, or pirogues. In 1839 Fremont and Nicolet ascended the Missouri on the fur company's steamers to some point on the Missouri, and from thence passed overland to the valley of the Dakota River, and are said to have ascended the latter stream and visited Devil's Lake, though we fail to find any authentic account of the matter. Catlin, the famous Indian delineator, visited the country in 1841, and since that date military and private expeditions have been numerous. The Catholic missionaries at Pembina erected a chapel about 1812, which the historian of Major Long's expedition says was fast going to decay in 1823. A Mr. Nolen was the most prominent settler living at Pembina at that date. We append some interesting paragraphs from Mr. Keating's account of the visit of Major Long's party: "The settlement consists of about three hundred and fifty souls, residing in sixty log houses or cabins. They do not appear to possess the qualifications for good settlers. Most of them are half-breed; the remainder consist of Swiss and Scotch settlers. Most of the former are old soldiers, as unfit for agricultural pursuits as the half-breed themselves. The only good colonists are the Scotch, who have brought over with them, as usual, their steady habits and their indefatigable perseverance. "The people were away on a buffalo hunt when the party arrived, but returned the next day with a great supply of meat. 115 carts, each loaded with 800 pounds of buffalo meat, and 300 persons, men women and children were in the procession as it came in. They had about two hundred very good horses. Twenty hunter, mounted on the best horses, led the procession. "There were English, Scotch, French, Italians, Germans, Swiss, Half-breed, and Indians of the Chippewa. Dakota and Crow nations, forming a mixture which ranked very low in the scale of civilization. They mainly depended upon the buffalo, but also raised small quantities of wheat, corn, barley, potatoes, turnips, tobacco, etc. A few of the higher class kept cows. They had no specie currency; everything was traffic. "The party determined the 49th parallel of latitude, the observations being made by James Edward Colhoun, astronomer and assistant topographer of the expedition. A camp was established and named `Camp Monroe,' in honor of the President of the United States. A solid oak post was set in the ground on the International line, marked on the north side G. B. , and on the south U. S., and Major Long issued a proclamation on the 8th of August declaring all the Red River Valley to the south of this post to be United States territory. It took in all of the village except on log dwelling. The inhabitants appeared to be well satisfied, and remarked that the line would throw all the buffalo into the United States. "The trade of Pembina in furs caught south of the boundary was estimated by Major Lon to be of the annual value of $7,100. They reported the rumored discovery of silver and coal in the mountains west of Red River. "The party proceeded down Red River to Lake Winnipeg, over thirty-five miles of its southeastern side to Fort Alexander, at the mouth of the Winnipeg or English River: thence up that stream to the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake, and down the water shed to Fort William, on Thunder Bay, Lake Superior, arriving at the latter place September 13, 1823." |
