NOTES OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE

NEBRASKA COUNTRY

MANUEL LISA, 1807

Oct. 12, 1808. Account of the prosecution of George Druillard, in the district court of St. Louis, J. B. C. Lucas presiding judge and Auguste Chouteau, associate, for the killing of Antoine Bissonnette on a charge of murder. Mr. Lisa and the accused in the spring of 1807, with goods and merchandise, which with their equipments amounted to $16,000, embarked as an adventure on a trading and hunting voyage up to the source of the Missouri river." They engaged the deceased as a hand for three years as hunter, watchman, etc. The party arrived at the mouth of the Osage May 14, 1807-about 120 miles up the Missouri-and on putting off the deceased was missing. Lisa instructed his partner "to go and bring him dead or alive." Druillard shot him-finding him in about half an hour-so that he died. He had stolen blankets and other articles and secreted them in the river Au Marie. Verdict not guilty.

MISSOURI FUR COMPANY

Missouri Gazette, March 8, 1809.

"The Missouri Fur Company, lately formed here, has every prospect of becoming a source of incalculable advantage, not only to the individuals engaged in the enterprise, but the community at large. Their extensive prep

"This was the famous fur trader's first adventure into the Upper Missouri, probably, at least. His expedition comprised forty-two men. It ascended the Yellowstone River to the mouth of the Bighorn, where it built a trading post. John Colter, who joined the expedition at the mouth of the Platte, was sent on a mission to the Blackfoot Indians and on the journey discovered Yellowstone Park. The Ave Marie River mentioned is now called Marias Creek. It joins the Osage about three miles above its mouth.

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arations, and the respectable force they intend to ascend the Missouri with, may bid defiance to any hostile band they may meet with:-the streams which descend from the Rocky Mountains afford the finest hunting, and here we learn they intend to build their fort. They have engaged to convey Shehekah, the Mandan chief, to his nation."

Missouri Gazette, Nov. 16, 1809.

Two men of the party which conducted the Mandan chief to his nation on the 13th, 43 days from the village, arrived there September 24; passage, 101 days from St. Louis; 1610 miles from the mouth of the Missouri to the village; making allowance for stops, 20 miles a day; arrived at the Arikara village September 12; were hospitably treated. The Sioux were hostile, but afraid to stop the party. The Blackfeet were entirely in the interest of the British and hostile to Americans. The British had trading houses on the Yellowstone and other tributaries of the Missouri. Crooks, Miller and McClellan, who had permission to ascend the Missouri to its head, were stopped by Tetons, but escaped by stratagem. They are now trading with the Omaha on the Platte. Pierre Chouteau and two sons, a son of Auguste Chouteau, Lisa, and Dr. Thomas, are expected daily with particulars. Nov. 23.

They arrived on the 20th. Promised a journal of their journey to the Gazette.

Feb. 22, 1810.

Benito Vasquez, Sr., died February 17.2

On November 30, 1809, the name of the paper was changed from Missouri Gazette to Louisiana Gazette.

Louisiana Gazette, April 25, 1811.

Says the Mahas village is some distance below Floyd's river.

At the mouth or near it, of the Qui Coure (L'Eau Qui Court), there is a village of the Pancas. The Ari

'See Billon, Annals of St. Louis, 1764-1804.

MISSOURI FUR COMPANY, 1812

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kara village is about 1400 miles up; and the Mandan, the last to be met with on the Missouri, sixteen hundred miles by its meanders, and in latitude 47° 21′ 47′′ N. They consist of four villages on the river.

"There are several villages of the Kansas, in the forks of that river, and the Blue Earth river." On the Platte, below the mouth of Wolf river. There is the great Pawnie village, and some distance above it, a village of Ottos, and the remains of the Missouris who have united themselves to that nation. The Loups reside in a village with the Pannis, on the Wolf river.

The Ponca numbered 300 warriors and 1400 souls; Grand Pawnee and Oto village, 700 warriors, 3000 in all; Pawnee and Loups, 500 warriors, 2000 in all; Oto and Missouri, 200 warriors, 1000 in all; Kansas, 300 warriors, 1400 in all; Sioux, 2500; 15,000 in general; only half of what they were twenty-five years ago on account of smallpox.

MISSOURI FUR COMPANY

Louisiana Gazette, Feb. 1, 1812.

Contains articles of association of the "Missouri Fur Company," 21 articles.

"The undersigned do hereby form a company of limited partnership and do associate and agree with each other, to the end of exploring in a commercial way, and hunting in that portion of country within the claim of the United States, and westwardly of a point, which shall be 500 miles from the United States present factories; and to conduct business within the said boundary, and at the town of St. Louis, under the name and title of the President and Directors of the Missouri Fur Company; and they do hereby mutually covenant and agree, that the following shall be fundamental articles of this their

'The Grand Pawnee village at that time was situated above the mouth of the Loup, on the south side of the Platte, nearly opposite the site now occupied by Clarks, Merrick county. The Oto and Missouri village was below, not above, the Pawnee village.

association, and agreement with each other, by which they and all persons who may at any time hereafter transact, any business with the said company, shall be bound and concluded."

Article 1.

Capital stock not to exceed fifty thousand dollars, shares one thousand dollars each, five hundred payable when subscribed, residue in installments, not exceeding $250 on each share, payable on thirty days notice as the president and directors may require.

Art. 2.

Twenty-three thousand dollars of the stock shall be subscribed by individuals, "and the funds of the former St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, which is now up the Missouri, calculated at twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and eighty-five dollars, in goods, wares and merchandise, and debts due by hunters who are now out as will appear by a reference to the settlement of accounts of that company in the possession of Gen. William Clark of St. Louis, shall constitute twenty-seven thousand dollars of the said fund, and taken into the common stock of this association. Subject to the future direction of the president and directors aforesaid, and the undersigned individual members of the former St. Louis Missouri Fur Company shall be entitled to three shares each in this association for the goods, wares, merchandise, &c. which they have up the Missouri aforesaid."

Art. 3.

Subscriptions to the $23,000 stock to be opened in St. Louis "under the directions of Gen. Wm. Clark, Manuel Lisa, and Salist Labade [probably the second Sylvester Labade]. . . ."

Art. 13.

"It is hereby expressly and explicitly declared to be the object of the persons who associate under the firm of the Missouri fur company, that the property or joint

KANSAS INDIAN VILLAGE, 1811

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stock of said company, exclusively of the dividends to be made in the manner herein mentioned, shall alone be responsible for the debts and engagements of the company, and that no person who shall or may deal with the said company, or to whom they shall or may become in any wise indebted shall on no pretence whatever, have recourse against the separate property of any present or future member of the company, or against their persons

Art. 20.

Provides that the association shall continue until the first Monday of December 1818, but owners of two-thirds of the stock might dissolve it "at any prior period."

Notice in this issue signed by "Pierre Chouteau, Sen., And Manuel Lisa," that, "On the 15th of February next, at the Store house opposite Mr. Gratiot, in the town of St. Louis, all the property of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, which remains in the hands of the Agent, consisting of Boats, Rifles, Guns, Howitzers and sundry other articles, also 130 Arpents of land near Portage des Sioux," will be sold at public auction.

April 11, 1812. Wm. H. Ashley offers for sale "my plantation" ten miles west of Cape Girardeau, 480 arpents. Evidently his home place as he describes the house as large and "the kitchen and other houses, all well calculated for the reception of a large family."

KANSAS VILLAGE

May 16, 1812. Prints a long extract "from a journal to the Pawnee and Kansas villages, undertaken by an officer of the Factory on the Missouri," dated, Fort Osage, Sept. 4, 1811. The editor was indebted for this letter "to the politeness of Gen. W. Clark.”

The Kansas village was situated "immediately on the north bank of the Kansas river, about a hundred miles by its course above its junction with the Missouri, in a charming elevated prairie of small extent, which is nearly