Louis Vasquez, Mountain Man

By Diane Euston

  The Wild West: Tales of cowboys, Native Americans, fur trappers and traders. Men who swapped the bustling east for the barren west. Uncharted territory- the want and need to establish something- to find something . . . to change their destiny.

 Many men and women during westward expansion did not hesitate to take the road, in Robert Frost’s words, “less traveled by.” Two of these men, Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez, did just that.

  Jim Bridger is certainly the better known of the two men, christened in the pages of the history of the West as one of the most famous of the mountain men. 

  Bridger was born in 1804 in Virginia. When he was a young child, he and his family moved to St. Louis. By 13, he lost his parents, was uneducated and illiterate. He became a fur trapper, traded with the Native Americans and was fluent in several Native American languages, French and Spanish.

  Louis Vasquez, born in 1798, was a polar opposite of Old Gabe in many ways, as he was well-educated in St. Louis and from one of the “first families” of the small fur-trading town and spoke at least eight languages. 

  Historian Bernard DeVoto wrote that Vasquez was “of aristocratic birth like Fontenelle – and bits of aristocratic elegance clung to him in the mountains like cottonwood fluff.”

  The story of the lesser-celebrated Louis Vasquez is intertwined with Bridger, but his impact on the west and as one of the residents of Jackson County, Mo. in his later life cannot be understated.

Benito Vasquez’s Time in St. Louis

  Pierre Louis Vasquez was the twelfth and final child born to parents Benito and Julie Papin. In order to understand the path Louis took in his life, we must understand what life he was born into.

  Louis’ father, Benito, was born in Spain in 1738. With little prospects available in a small town, Benito joined the infantry of Leon in 1762, and he would continue to serve in the military in some capacity for 30 years.

  In 1766, Benito was selected to join a group of 100 soldiers accompanying the new governor of Spanish-controlled Louisiana Territory to America.  By 1769, the group arrived in St. Louis – then just a five-year-old hamlet of under 500 people, a third of them enslaved. The town hovered on three long streets laid out parallel to the river, and the bulk of the population were French-speaking and French in culture through and through. 

  In 1772, Benito retired from military service and became actively involved in fur trading, the primary occupation of the French-speaking residents. 

  While on a trading expedition to New Orleans, Benito purchased a bell cast of bronze and 200 silver pieces for the first Catholic church in St. Louis – a bell that currently stands today on display at the Old Cathedral Museum.

  In 1774, 36-year-old Benito Vasquez married 20-year-old Julie Papin of an early French-Canadian family. His wife, a literate and intelligent woman, would go on to have 12 children, two of which died in infancy.

  During the Revolutionary War when the British tried to invade St. Louis in 1780, Benito joined the home guard and fought successfully to keep the town out of their hands. 

  In 1780, Benito, his wife, and their young family moved into a home that contained a main residence made of posts 30 by 30 feet and contained three stone houses, all later sold and occupied by William Clark (1770-1838). This is where on October 3, 1798, Benito and his wife, Julie, welcomed their final child, a boy they named Pierre Louis Vasquez.

  After St. Louis and all of Louisiana Territory had been claimed by Spain, England and the United States, Louisiana was formally ceded to the U.S. in 1804. 

  In St. Louis, there was a formal ceremony that included removing the Spanish flag from government buildings. Benito’s oldest son, Benito, Jr. (1779-1848) was asked to do the honor, “but he declined, pleading the excuse of a sore hand.” As the flag was taken down, tears flooded down the faces of the Vasquez family.

  Benito had many years of success in fur trading, even being given a license to trade with the Kansa Indians. But for several reasons, the trade for Benito became lucrative and his wealth slowly depleted. By the time the territory was in control of the United States, the lieutenant governor wrote that Benito was “a former officer, father of a numerous family, poor, who does not succeed in business.” 

  The family was forced to move to a small log house at 206 North Main in St. Louis. There, Benito Vasquez passed away in 1810 when young Louis was just 11 years old. Regardless of his failures later in life that likely greatly impacted his young son, Benito was one of the earliest prominent men of St. Louis.

Early Influences of Louis’ Life

  Louis’ oldest brother, Benito, Jr. took over the management of his father’s lucrative holdings, and Louis looked at him as a father figure. Benito, Jr., along with mother, Julie, kept Louis grounded in his early years despite the lure of the romantic mountains to the west.

  The expeditions of an excited young population of St. Louis were never lacking, as opportunities to leave behind the familiar French settlement for parts unknown were endless. Louis grew up hearing of his brother, Antoine Francis (1783-1828), better known as Baronet’s, excursions as an early explorer.

  At 22 years old in 1806, Baronet signed on as an interpreter for Zebulon M. Pike, an American army officer who explored the Rocky Mountains and Spanish colonial settlements of New Mexico and Texas.  Pike’s Peak in Colorado is named after the famous explorer. 

  Baronet was 15 years older than Louis and a lifetime ahead of him in experiences, but these Vasquez brothers would have many things in common. They spoke French at home, but both were fluent in their father’s native Spanish language and in English.

  Even with the lure of the west, Louis’ mother was able to keep him grounded in St. Louis throughout his teenage years. He was likely educated by J.B. Trudeau, a school teacher who came from New Orleans in 1774 and had a school in St. Louis for 50 years.

  Interestingly, the first Vasquez to settle in the future site of Kansas City wasn’t Louis – it was his older brother, Baronet. 

  Francois Chouteau (1797-1838), a native of St. Louis, established a fur trading post at the future site of Kansas City in 1821, and by 1825, about a dozen French-speaking families settled in the area to take up in trading. 

  Benito Vasquez was named the first Indian sub-agent to the Kaw (Kansas) tribe in 1825 and opted to build a home for his family near Chouteau’s trading post. In July 1828, Baronet was on his way back from St. Louis to the settlement with Fr. Lutz when tragedy struck. 

  Frederick Chouteau, younger brother to Francois, wrote, “[Baronet] took the cholera and died . . . He was a hard drinker.” 

An Invitation to the West

  An advertisement in the Missouri Republican newspaper on March 20, 1822 likely got Louis Vasquez’s attention when William Ashley (1778-1838) called for 100 young men “to ascend the Missouri River to its source, there to be employed for one, two or three years.”

  Those responding to the advertisement included many young men from prominent families from St. Louis. Included in this was 24-year-old Louis Vasquez. From 1822 to 1826, he worked for Ashley and met Jim Bridger on the expedition, establishing a lifelong friendship with the famed mountain man.

  Louis was present at the discovery of the Great Salt Lake in 1824 when he, along with Bridger, also discovered the South Pass.

  In 1826, William Ashley sold his business, and the company was again sold to a larger group in 1830 that included Jim Bridger. It became known as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and Louis stayed employed by the firm trading often with the Sioux and Crow tribes.

  One of the systems developed by William Ashley in 1825 called “the rendezvous” was continued by these men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and became a very profitable business. Historian Lauren C. Bray described the rendezvous system:

  “The purpose of the rendezvous was to bring all interested parties together to take care of the various transactions of the business, such as the buying and trading of pelts, the payment of obligations, the securing of supplies for the coming year, the hiring of men, and the renewal of contracts.”

  In numerous accounts, the summer rendezvous, active until 1840, was more like a carnival than a formal business venture. Traders and mountain men gathered with hundreds of Native Americans to share food, trade and a lot of whiskey. The early rendezvous until 1828 occurred in Utah, and all the rest (minus one in Idaho in 1832) occurred in current-day Wyoming.

Trading Posts in Colorado

  By the time Louis reached the age of 35 in 1833, he was known by his contemporaries as “an old mountain man” and commonly referred to as “Old Vaskiss.” 

  About this time, Louis built the first habitation at the current-day site of Denver. This trading post on the east side of the Platte River was a log fur trading post opposite the mouth of Clear Creek. Early-on, Clear Creek was known as “Vasquez Fork.” This post was frequented by the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota people.

  A bachelor with no true connection to his native St. Louis, Louis had little to lose. He used this as a source of generating business connections, as he wrote to a contact in St. Louis in 1834, “Tell them that I have no heirs and I hope to make a fortune.” 

  Despite his lack of his own family, he still wished to learn what he could while out in the wilderness. He asked his older brother, Benito, to send him novels by way of Robert Campbell.

  The post in current-day Denver was short-lived, and in 1835, Louis Vasquez partnered with Andrew Sublette, younger brother of William and Milton, to build Fort Vasquez on the shore of the South Platte River near Pike’s Peak. It was strategically located halfway between Fort Laramie and Bent’s Fort about 35 miles north of Denver.

  Fort Vasquez was a large adobe structure 100 feet on each side with two-foot-thick walls; at the height of its operation, about two dozen people worked and lived there. He hired famed Jim Beckwourth (1800-1866), a formerly enslaved man-turned explorer and scout to work as a clerk there. From 1836 to 1842, Louis’ nephew, Pike Vasquez (b. 1813 and son of Baronet) was employed at the post.

  Louis would annually return to Missouri to resupply his post, often landing in Independence and Westport. In August 1839, Andrew Sublette and Louis left Independence. The event was described:

  “The party at starting consisting of thirty-two persons. . . There were four wagons loaded with goods, to be used in the Indian trade, drawn by six mules each.”

  Fort Vasquez was short-lived. In 1842, the post was sold for only $800 because “furs were too few, prices too low, competition too great.” 

  Fort Vasquez was restored in the 1930s and operates as a fur-trading museum off U.S. Route 85 near Platteville, Colo. today.

Reuniting with Old Gabe and Uniting in Marriage

  Louis wrote in 1842, “I leave to make money or die,” a hardened attitude common for many mountain men of the day. Even with the rugged conditions Louis lived in throughout these years, he still was known as one of the more aristocratic of his companions. Col. A.G. Brackett described him as “a Mexican, who put on a great deal of style, and used to ride about the country in a coach and four.”

  Luckily for the history of the country, Louis did not die and did, in fact, make money. He reunited with his old friend, Jim Bridger, and with him opened Fort Bridger in 1843. Located on the Black’s Fork of the Green River along the Oregon Trail in current-day Wyoming, the post was an extremely successful operation for the aging mountain men.

  Thousands of wagon trains bound for Oregon passed by Fort Bridger on their way to new lives in the west, and the two men were eager to sell them supplies.

  On a return trip to Missouri in 1846, Old Vaskiss finally decided to settle down. He married widow Narcissa Land (1819-1899), a mother to two young children who was living in Independence. The two made a lovely pair along the frontier – Louis loved smoking cigars while Narcissa preferred a clay pipe.

  Narcissa’s son, Hiram (1844-1933), was adopted by Louis and took his name. He was just a toddler when he moved with his mother to Fort Bridger, and his mother was a fish out of water.

  At Fort Bridger, Narcissa acclimated to life living under the same roof with Jim Bridger’s family, including his Ute Indian wife. 

  William G. Johnston, traveling to California in 1849, stopped at Fort Bridger and described Louis as “a fine portly gentleman of medium height, about 50 years of age, and made the impression of being intelligent and shrewd.” 

  In about 1848 when just three or four years old, Narcissa Vasquez’s son, Hiram, was kidnapped by the chief of the Shoshone, Chief Washakie while playing near the fort with his sister. He was raised for several years by Washakie.

  While the tribe was trading near the Salt Lake, Hiram ran away and was found by a settler. “As he was unable to talk English, an interpreter had to be provided.” He was reunited with his family at Fort Bridger.

  The same fate fell upon Jim Bridger’s daughter from his first marriage, Mary Ann. Bridger left his 11-year-old daughter with the Whitman family, Protestant missionaries, in current-day Washington to be educated. In November 1847, 13 people were murdered in front of Mary Ann (the only witness) by the Cayuse tribe. Mary Ann’s release was negotiated, but unfortunately, she died a year later.

  Bridger’s Ute Indian wife passed away, and in a twist quite unexpected, Jim Bridger married Mary Washakie, Chief Washakie’s daughter, in 1850 – at about the same time Louis Vasquez’s stepson had been released from his captivity.

  Fort Bridger was sold to the Mormons in 1858.

Moving Back to Missouri

  There were a multitude of reasons for Vasquez and Bridger to abandon the west, but the kidnappings, negative interactions with the Mormons, declining trade and the need of education for their children had the men looking back east for permanent settlement.

  Hiram Vasquez later wrote, “We returned to St. Louis when I was 11 or 12, taking the Platte route. . . Father had a brick house in St. Louis, on Hickory Street. . . Father then bought a house in Westport, Missouri, and we had a little farm ten miles south of Kansas City, and one mile east of the state line.”

  The Vasquez family had grown to include Pierre, Jr. (1847-1881), Mary Ann (1849-1925), Sarah Ellen (1851-1875) and Louise (1854-1858).

  In October 1852, Louis Vasquez landed in Jackson County, Mo. and purchased his first parcel of land in the area. The 160-acre farm was on the east side of Wornall between current-day Bannister Rd. and 91st St., from Main St. to Oak St. The farmhouse stood at approximately 94th and Main.

  Always having an eye on the lucrative trade at the time, the men pooled $50 in January 1853 and purchased two lots in the town of New Santa Fe at current-day 121st and State Line on the Santa Fe Trail and began a trading house called Vasquez, Bridger & Watts. 

  Their partner, Josiah Watts (1824-1895), was the brother of Stubbens Watts and grew up on at the well-known Watts Mill at current-day 103rd and State Line. These two men, with the spirit of a younger, vibrant businessman Josiah Watts, ran a store and continued in trade.

  In 1855, Bridger joined his old friend, Louis, when he bought a nearby farm. His farm went as far north as Watts Mill and as far south as Glen Arbor Road, just past Red Bridge Road. 

  Bridger continued to whet his appetite of the west by traveling as a scout. According to his daughter, he was sometimes gone as long as three years while Louis Vasquez retired officially as a mountain man. He continued to invest in interests, including one of the earliest businesses – a provision and grocery store- in Denver that was managed by his nephew, Pike. 

  In October 1859, likely due to increased violence along the border, Louis Vasquez purchased a property for $2,000 close to Westport in Vogle’s Addition where the family moved during the Civil War. His land bordered 39th St. to the north and stretched between Clark Ave. and Southwest Trafficway. 

  The couple lost daughter Louise in 1858 when a crate fell on top of her from a freight wagon in Westport. The couple welcomed two more daughters while living in Westport- Emma (1860-1891) and Narcissa (1862-1921).

The End of the Mountain Man and an Era

  Life in Westport and their farm south was likely a welcomed change to the uncertainty, violence and isolation of the west that Louis Vasquez watched drastically change over 30 years as a frontiersman. He became a man in the mountains, making a large fortune bartering for skins and furs with the uncivilized tribes.

  But Old Vaskiss, as it can be seen, never truly settled down completely, as he continued investing in the fortunes of those traveling west. But the mountains were changing, and the tribes were left with little choice but to surrender their nomadic lifestyle for reservation lands.

  In July 1868, the Shoshone tribe of Montana, led by Chief Washakie, signed a treaty that gave them a reservation in Wind River Mountain country in exchange for the tribe’s land in Green River Valley. This, along with so many other questionable treaties, signaled a new era for the American West and the end of the era carved out by men like Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez.

  Just two months later on September 5, 1868, old Louis Vasquez closed his eyes and died at the age of 70. His death was not memorialized in the newspapers of the time, as the growth of the west had all but forgotten Old Vaskiss and his contributions to the American West. His grave in the old Catholic cemetery was moved to Mount St. Mary’s and is unmarked today.

  By 1875, Jim Bridger was blind and most of Louis’ family had moved back to the mountains of Colorado. Bridger oftentimes said, “I wish I war back thar ‘mong the mountains agin. A man kin see so much farther in that country.”

  In 1881, Jim Bridger died and was buried on a hill a half mile north of Watts Mill in the Watts Burial Ground (101st and Jefferson). He was later removed to Mount Washington Cemetery.

  So much can be learned from these old mountain men and their dedication to the dreams they held. And Louis Vasquez’s tenacity, beginning as young men in St. Louis, blossoming in the mountains and retiring in Jackson County, tells the story of man who blazed trails with little concern of the risk. As Robert Frost famously penned, “I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Diane writes a blog on the history of the area. To read more of the stories, go to www.newsantafetrailer.blogspot.com.