Baker, James (19 December 1818–15 May 1898), trapper, army scout, and early settler of Colorado and Wyoming, was born in Belleville, Illinois, and grew up near Springfield. His parents were of Scots-Irish ancestry from South Carolina. With little formal schooling but adept with a rifle, Jim Baker left home for St. Louis in 1838 and signed an eighteen-month contract with the American Fur Company. On 25 May 1838 the Rocky Mountain–bound party, led by ...
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Baker, James (1818-1898), trapper, army scout, and early settler of Colorado and Wyoming
Douglas D. Martin
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Biddle, Clement (1740-1814), merchant and army officer
Harry M. Ward
Biddle, Clement (10 May 1740–14 July 1814), merchant and army officer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Biddle, a shipping merchant, and Sarah Owen. Biddle’s great-grandfather, who came to America in 1681, was one of the proprietors of West New Jersey. Biddle’s father moved from Mount Hope, New Jersey, to Philadelphia in 1730. Except for some interruption from his army service, Clement Biddle was a lifelong merchant whose family eventually achieved great prominence in Philadelphia. He formed a partnership early in life with his father called John & Clement Biddle. On 6 June 1764 Biddle married Mary Richardson, daughter of Francis Richardson of Chester, Pennsylvania. They had one child, Frances, who died in infancy; Biddle became a widower in 1773. On 18 August 1774 he took as his second wife Rebekah Cornell, daughter of Gideon Cornell, who at the time of his death in 1765 was lieutenant governor and chief justice of Rhode Island. Rebekah lived until 18 November 1831, having borne thirteen children, two of whom died in infancy. Nine children married into prominent families, as did their successors, and this Biddle branch became one of Philadelphia’s most powerful and wealthy families. Clement Biddle’s sister, Ann, married General ...
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Bridger, James (1804-1881), fur trapper and trader, explorer, and scout
Robert L. Gale
Bridger, James (17 March 1804–17 July 1881), fur trapper and trader, explorer, and scout, was born in a tavern near Richmond, Virginia, the son of James Bridger, a surveyor and innkeeper, and Chloe Tyler, a barmaid. Bridger and his family moved in about 1812 to a farm near St. Louis, where, on being orphaned five years later, he became a blacksmith’s apprentice. In 1822 he responded to an advertisement calling for a hundred able-bodied young men to join a fur-trapping expedition, lasting from one to three years, up to the headwaters of the Missouri River. The organizers of the expedition were ...
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Carson, Kit (1809-1868), mountain man, army officer, and Indian agent
Richard H. Dillon
Carson, Kit (24 December 1809–23 May 1868), mountain man, army officer, and Indian agent, was born Christopher Houston Carson in Madison County, Kentucky, the son of Lindsey Carson, a farmer and revolutionary war veteran, and Rebecca Robinson. In 1811 Lindsey Carson moved his family to Howard County, Missouri, to find “elbow room.” He died in 1818, hit by a falling limb while clearing timber from his land. Christopher enjoyed no schooling and never learned to read or write, other than signing his name to documents. In 1825 his mother and stepfather apprenticed him to David Workman, a Franklin, Missouri, saddler whom Kit described as a kind and good man. Nevertheless, he ran away because he found saddlemaking tedious and distasteful work and yearned to travel. Following in the footsteps of a brother and a half-brother who were in the Santa Fe trade, Carson joined a caravan as a “cavvy boy” (an assistant to the wrangler in charge of the horse and mule herd). Though not unsympathetic, Workman was obliged by law to advertise for his runaway. But he misleadingly suggested to readers of the ...
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Carson, Kit (1809-1868)
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Kit Carson. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-107570).
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Clarkson, Matthew (1758-1825), revolutionary war soldier and businessman
Jean W. Ashton
Clarkson, Matthew (17 October 1758–25 April 1825), revolutionary war soldier and businessman, was born in New York City, the son of David Clarkson and Elizabeth French. After attending boarding school in Kingsbridge, New York, he enlisted at age seventeen in a corps of fusiliers under the command of Richard Ritzema and ...
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Fink, Mike (1770-1823), scout, keelboatman, and trapper
Robert L. Gale
Fink, Mike (1770–1823), scout, keelboatman, and trapper, was born at Fort Pitt, part of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His ancestry was probably Scotch-Irish and Pennsylvania German. It is hard to separate fact from fiction concerning Mike Fink. Early in his life he was an expert marksman with his Kentucky rifle. While still a teenager, he was probably a hunter who sold meat to Pittsburgh butchers and was surely a scout who gathered information for the settlements about Indian activities beyond the western frontier. The battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, followed by the Treaty of Greenville a year later, guaranteed the security of the Northwest frontier and established a boundary in the Northwest Territory between Indian lands and areas open to further white settlement. So Fink moved into his second career, that of a keelboatman....
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Fiske, John (1744-1797), naval officer and merchant seaman
Paul David Nelson
Fiske, John (11 April 1744–28 September 1797), naval officer and merchant seaman, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of the Reverend Samuel Fiske, a Christian minister, and Anna Gerrish. Besides the educational instruction he received from his father, Fiske attended local schools. At an early age, he determined to make his living as a sailor, and by the time he was twenty-one he commanded a brigantine in trade with Spanish ports. In 1766 he married Lydia Phippen, with whom he had a large family. An outgoing, garrulous man, he was appreciated by those who were employed by him because of his handsome largesse and his congenial spirit as a master....
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Folsom, Nathaniel (1726-1790), merchant and soldier
Gregory C. Colati
Folsom, Nathaniel (18 September 1726–26 May 1790), merchant and soldier, was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, the son of Jonathan Folsom and Anna Ladd Foster, farmers. When Folsom was fourteen his father died. He was apprenticed to a trade but later became a merchant and, with two partners, began his own trading firm. He had no formal or academic education....
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Glover, John (1732-1797), merchant and army officer
William M. Fowler
Glover, John (05 November 1732–30 January 1797), merchant and army officer, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Jonathan Glover, a house carpenter, and Tabitha Bacon. When he was four years old Glover’s father died. Some time thereafter the widowed mother moved with her four sons to nearby Marblehead. Glover became a shoemaker and then entered into the fishing business. He married Hannah Gale in 1754; they had eleven children. With profits from fishing Glover purchased a small coasting vessel and began trading with the West Indies and the Iberian peninsula. By 1774 Glover had accumulated considerable property and had become one of Marblehead’s leading citizens....
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Hambleton, Thomas Edward (1829-1906), blockade runner and financier
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
Hambleton, Thomas Edward (17 May 1829–21 September 1906), blockade runner and financier, was born in New Windsor, Maryland, the son of Thomas Edward Hambleton, a dry-goods merchant and entrepreneur, and Sarah Slingluff. His parents moved in 1831 to Baltimore, where Hambleton received his early education before enrolling in St. Mary’s College, from which he graduated in 1849. He then entered into a partnership in Baltimore that manufactured agricultural implements. In 1852 he married Arabella Stansbury, with whom he had three children....
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Hazen, Moses (1733-1803), army officer, landowner, and merchant
Allan S. Everest
Hazen, Moses (01 June 1733–05 February 1803), army officer, landowner, and merchant, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the son of Moses Hazen, a merchant, and Abigail White. Hazen was apprenticed to a tanner and later operated independently. The outbreak of the French and Indian War lured him away, and he remained in the military during two great wars. In 1755 he enlisted in a British colonial unit and served under Colonel ...
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Mifflin, Thomas (1744-1800), merchant, soldier, and politician
John K. Alexander
Mifflin, Thomas (10 January 1744–20 January 1800), merchant, soldier, and politician, was born in Philadelphia, the son of John Mifflin and Elizabeth Bagnell, Quakers. His father, a wealthy merchant, held numerous significant political posts including that of provincial councilor. Thomas graduated from the College of Philadelphia in 1760 and then spent four years learning the merchant trade with William Coleman. After visiting England and France during 1764 and 1765, Mifflin formed a mercantile partnership with his brother George and in March 1767 married Sarah Morris, a cousin. The couple quickly took a prominent place in Philadelphia’s elite social circle. Contemporaries described Mifflin as an affable gentleman and fine sportsman. Elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1768, he actively participated in that organization thereafter....
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Navarre, Pierre (28 March 1790?–20 March 1874), fur trader and military scout
Alfred A. Cave
Navarre, Pierre (28 March 1790?–20 March 1874), fur trader and military scout, was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of François Utreau Navarre and Marie Louise Godet. Pierre (also known as Peter) was of French descent. His grandfather Robert Navarre, an officer in the French army, was a pioneer settler of Detroit and author of “Journal of the Conspiracy of Pontiac” (later published as ...
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Pepperrell, Sir William (1696-1759), merchant and soldier
Ronald P. Dufour
Pepperrell, Sir William (27 June 1696–06 July 1759), merchant and soldier, was born in Kittery Point, Maine, then part of Massachusetts, the son of William Pepperrell and Margery Bray. His father was a prosperous merchant, and young William grew up in a comfortable family, though he received little formal education and acquired his business knowledge from working in his father’s store. Pepperrell (sometimes spelled Pepperell) joined the militia at age sixteen, and he later became a partner in his father’s business. The firm built ships and traded lumber, fish, ships, and other products to the southern colonies, the West Indies, the Mediterranean region, and England, in turn importing European products that they sold in Boston. Father and son prospered and invested their returns in real estate; by 1729 the younger Pepperrell owned almost the entire townships of Saco and Scarboro, Maine. He was also responsible for the firm’s affairs in Boston, where he made valuable social contacts. In 1723 he married Mary Hirst, the granddaughter of ...
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Roberdeau, Daniel (1727-1795), merchant and revolutionary war general
Darwin H. Stapleton
Roberdeau, Daniel (1727–05 January 1795), merchant and revolutionary war general, was born on St. Kitts (St. Christopher), West Indies, the son of Isaac Roberdeau and Mary Cunyngham. Nothing is known about his parents’ occupations. His father was a Huguenot from La Rochelle, France; his mother was of Scottish ancestry. Roberdeau was sent to England for his education but on his father’s death moved to Philadelphia with his mother and completed his studies there. He soon began a successful career in the West Indian trade. He entered politics as a warden of the city and in 1756 was elected to his first of five annual terms in the state assembly. He married Mary Bostwick of Philadelphia in 1761 and, adopting her devout Presbyterianism, became an elder of the Second Presbyterian Church. The couple had nine children....
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Tracy, Nathaniel (1751-1796), merchant and revolutionary privateer
William Pencak
Tracy, Nathaniel (11 August 1751–20 September 1796), merchant and revolutionary privateer, was born in Newbury (later Newburyport), Massachusetts, the son of Captain Patrick Tracy, who emigrated from County Wexford, Ireland, and Hannah Gookin. The elder Tracy became a wealthy merchant and sea captain. After attending the Boston Latin School and receiving his B.A. in 1769 and M.A. in 1772 from Harvard College, Nathaniel followed in his father’s footsteps. In 1774 he went into business with his brother John and Harvard classmate John Jackson of Boston, who had married his sister Hannah. In 1775 Tracy married Mary Lee, the daughter of Colonel Jeremiah Lee of Marblehead, thus uniting the leading families of two maritime communities. They had eleven children....
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Vigo, Joseph Maria Francesco (1747-1836), soldier, fur trader, and merchant
William W. Giffin
Vigo, Joseph Maria Francesco (03 December 1747–22 March 1836), soldier, fur trader, and merchant, was born in Mondovi on territory in northern Italy then possessed by the kingdom of Sardinia, the son of Matheo Vigo and Maria Magdalena Iugalibus. In his youth Vigo was a soldier in a Spanish regiment that was assigned to Spanish territory in the Americas. Vigo was stationed in Havana, Cuba, and then in New Orleans, where he was informed about a profitable fur trade. Traders from the upper Mississippi River frequented the port in order to export furs and to acquire trade goods. Following his discharge from the military, Vigo began acquiring furs in the Arkansas country, where he developed successful commercial relations with native American suppliers of pelts and with French inhabitants. In 1772 Vigo removed to St. Louis, a new Spanish outpost. As Vigo prospered he made a partnership with a relative, establishing the firm of Vigo and Yosti. In 1778 Fernando de Leyba, the lieutenant governor of Louisiana then residing in St. Louis, entered a partnership with Vigo in an unpublicized agreement....
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Wadsworth, Peleg (1748-1829), military officer, politician, and merchant
Sheldon S. Cohen
Wadsworth, Peleg (25 April 1748–12 November 1829), military officer, politician, and merchant, was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Deacon Peleg Wadsworth and Susanna Sampson. An ancestor, Christopher Wadsworth, was one of the town’s early settlers. Peleg received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1769 and subsequently returned for a master’s degree which he received in 1772. Following his undergraduate studies, he operated a private school in Plymouth, Massachusetts. In 1772 he married Elizabeth Bartlett, a resident of that town and a direct descendant of the ...
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Walker, Joseph Rutherford (1798-1876), fur trader and explorer
Richard H. Dillon
Walker, Joseph Rutherford (13 December 1798–27 October 1876), fur trader and explorer, was born in Roane County, Tennessee, the son of Joseph Walker and Susan Willis, farmers. Walker grew up to be a strapping 6′ 4″ young man, strongly built at 200 pounds. Nothing is known of his education. A faulty obituary has led to constant error in his middle name, “Reddeford” being substituted for the proper Rutherford. Walker probably served with his brother Joel in the Creek War campaign of ...
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