|
William
Ashley was not a Mountain Man in spirit or by choice,
however, in courage and deed, he proved himself to be every bit as tough
as any Mountain Man. Ashley
was lieutenant governor of Missouri and a brigadier general in the
Missouri State militia. One of
Ashley’s ambitions in life was to be "an important" man in
society, and his primary goal in the fur trade was to secure enough wealth
to attain that importance. In
1822, he partnered with Andrew Henry, also major in the Missouri State
militia and a veteran of the Missouri River fur trade, to exploit the fur
resources of the Three Forks Country.
In that same year, Ashley
The company formed by Ashley and
Henry was to operate in a manner unlike many of the fur companies at that
time. Firstly, the brigade
would obtain furs primarily by hunting and trapping themselves, rather
than through trade with the Indians, although they would
trade with Indians when opportunities presented.
As early as 1807-1810 Manuel Lisa and Andrew
Henry had recognized that Indians could not be depended on for a steady
flow of furs. This would
present certain legal difficulties, in that the federal license issued to
Ashley and Henry was for trading, even though they intended to trap.
Federal officials either didn’t understand the distinction, or
chose to overlook it. The
Blackfeet Indians in whose territory the trapping was to occur, did
understand the distinction, and they would choose to enforce it with the
tomahawk and lance. The second operational difference
was the way in which this new company was to hire and pay its employees.
The only engages, or fully salaried personnel were the clerks and
boatmen. All others, in
exchange for firearms, traps, and other supplies and a wage, were to turn
over to the company one-half of their fur take, the other half which would
be purchased by the company at prevailing prices.
This innovation was to evolve into the Free Trapper.
By late spring of
1823, the second
Ashley-Henry brigade had traveled up the Missouri River to the Arikara
villages. Historically, fur
brigades had often had difficulty getting past the Arikara villages, and
in 1823, it was to be a disaster. After
a difficult bout of trading on May 31, a nighttime altercation in the
village involving a native woman, resulted in one of Ashley’s men being
killed and the entire town aroused against the trappers.
The next morning the Indians opened fire from the fortifications of
their village, killing fifteen of Ashley’s men, wounding an additional
nine, and dealing a crippling blow to Ashley’s plans for that season.
Ashley withdrew down the river, until Andrew Henry could be
summoned to help. In the mean time, Colonel
Leavenworth, at Fort Atkinson, hastened to aid Ashley.
On July 30, Colonel Leavenworth’s “Missouri Legion”, composed
of 230 army regulars, and artillery, 40 men from Joshua Pilcher’s
outfit, and 80 of Ashley’s men was ready to take action against the
Arikara. The legion was joined
by about 750 mounted Sioux warriors, who took advantage of this opportunity to score coup against their tribal enemies and to perhaps
steal some corn and squash. On
August 9th, hostilities were opened between the Sioux and the
Arikara, after which the Arikara fled back inside their fortified
villages. After several days
of indecisive skirmishes, the Arikara Indians fled their villages during
the night. The next day,
somehow the villages were fired and burned to the ground.
It was now late August and with no
time left to re-outfit and return to the field Ashley and Henry were
facing financial ruin. Even
with the Arikara gone, the Missouri River was plainly to dangerous to rely
on as a means of transportation to and from the mountains.
Ashley and Henry decided to travel overland by horse avoiding the
dangers of the Missouri. Henry
would take a party and return to the mouth of the Yellowstone, and Ashley
would send out another party, captained by Jedediah Smith, due west out of
Fort Kiowa eventually to link up with Henry.
The 1823-1824 hunts delivered to
St. Louis a large quantity of furs, however, of most importance was the
news of the (re)discovery of an easy passage across the continental divide, known
as South Pass (Robert Stuart's party of Astorians discovered the pass in
1812). Ashley
immediately started to outfit a pack-train, however delays prevented its
departure until the spring of 1825. By
April 20, Ashley and his men were at the Green River, where he divided the
company into four parties. In
order to reunite the four groups, Ashley told the group leaders, that he
would find a suitable spot downstream (along the Green River) cache the
goods, and “make such Marks as would designate it as a place of General
Rendezvous for the men in my service”.
Here all of the parties would assemble on or before July 10th.
Thus Ashley inadvertently invented the mountain institution of the
“Rendezvous” which was to become synonymous with the Golden Age of the
Mountain Man. At the 1825 rendezvous Ashley
discovered that the mountain men were not only willing to remain in the
mountains year round, they would actually prefer not to make the annual
round trip to St. Louis. Ashley
also took a new partner at this rendezvous, Jedediah Smith, to replace
Andrew Henry, who had abruptly decided to retire to a more sedate existence
in Missouri. After the 1826
rendezvous, Ashley had accumulated enough money to pay off his debts, and
was modestly wealthy besides. He
now knew that the greatest profits and least risk lay in supplying the
trappers at rendezvous, and not in trapping the furs.
In a complicated transaction, Ashley sold his share of the company
to Jedediah Smith, David Jackson and William Sublette.
Ashley would continue to provide supplies and merchandise to the
new company, and would purchase their furs and return them to St. Louis.
William Ashley retired entirely
from the fur trade in 1830. Twice
defeated for governor of Missouri, he was elected as a Missouri State
Representative to the U.S. Congress in 1831, a position which he held
until 1837. In 1838 he died at age 60 of pneumonia. To learn more about General William Ashley see the following references:
|
placed
an advertisement in local newspapers calling for 100 enterprising young
men to ascend the Missouri River to its source. The exploits and
adventures of many of the men who responded were to become
legends. Ashley's men included