Bent, St. Vrain & Company was a fur trading and Indian trading business active from 1830 to 1849, in the

Republic of Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

, and in the

unorganized territory Unorganized territory may refer to: * An unincorporated area in any number of countries * One of the current or former territories of the United States that has not had a government "organized" with an "organic act" by the U.S. Congress * Unorganize ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Formation and operations

Bent, St. Vrain & Company was formed as a partnership between

Charles Bent Charles Bent (November 11, 1799 – January 19, 1847) was an American businessman and politician who served as the first civilian United States governor of the New Mexico Territory, newly acquired by the Military Governor, Stephen Watts Kearny, ...

and

Ceran St. Vrain Ceran St. Vrain, born Ceran de Hault de Lassus de Saint-Vrain (May 5, 1802 – October 28, 1870), was the son of a French aristocrat who immigrated to the Spanish Louisiana in the late 18th century; his mother was from St. Louis, where he was bor ...

in 1830. The following year,

William Bent William Wells Bent (May 23, 1809 – May 19, 1869) was a frontier trader and rancher in the American West, with forts in Colorado. He also acted as a mediator among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United St ...

, brother of Charles, joined the company as a partner. The commercial basis for the company was the transport and sale of manufactured goods from

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

to Santa Fe, via the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...

, and the procurement and transportation of

fur Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...

s and

buffalo robe A buffalo robe is a cured buffalo hide, with the hair left on. They were used as blankets, saddles or as trade items by the Native Americans who inhabited the vast grasslands of the Interior Plains. Some were painted with pictographs or Winte ...

s in return. Its annual

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...

from the fur trade, about $400,000, made them the largest American fur trade outfit next to the

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States. During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British co ...

. The company owned stores in Santa Fe and

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos, Missouri, a city in Cole County, Missouri, United States * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colo ...

, and a

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

at the latter place. It built a number of trading posts, called

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

s, in the Indian country, for trade with Native American hunters, French, Hispanic and American

mountain men A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

, as well as with

teamster A teamster is the American term for a truck driver or a person who drives teams of draft animals. Further, the term often refers to a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union in the United States and Canada. Origi ...

settler A settler is a person who has human migration, migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a ...

s and others on the Santa Fe trail.

Dissolution

The

occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

during the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

led to the end of Bent, St. Vrain & Company. Charles Bent was appointed governor of New Mexico by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, before the formal cession of the territory to the United States, and was murdered as a prelude to the

Taos Revolt The Taos Revolt was a populist insurrection in January 1847 by Hispano and Pueblo allies against the United States' occupation of present-day northern New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. Provisional governor Charles Bent and several ...

by Mexican and Native American

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric na ...

s. The general unrest after the revolt and the psychological stress of the surviving partners, especially in conjunction with the diminishing demands for fur on the world market, caused the dissolution of the company in 1849.

Trading posts

* Bents Old Fort, 1833–1849. *

Fort Saint Vrain Fort Saint Vrain was an 1837 fur trading post built by the Bent, St. Vrain Company, and located at the confluence of Saint Vrain Creek and the South Platte River, about 20 miles (32 km) east of the Rocky Mountains in the unorganized territ ...

, 1837–1844. * Fort Jackson, bought and closed down 1838. *

Fort Adobe Adobe Walls is a ghost town in Hutchinson County, northeast of Stinnett, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was established in 1843 as a trading post for buffalo hunters and local Native American trade in the vicinity of the Canadian River. It late ...

, 1845–1846?Robertson 1999, p. 39.

References

Notes

Cited literature

* Comer, Douglas C. (1996). ''Ritual Ground: Bent's Old Fort, World Formation, and the Annexation of the Southwest''. Berkeley: University of California Press. * Crutchfield, James A., Moulton, Candy & Del Bene, Terry A. (2011). ''The Settlement of America''. New York: Routledge. * Roberts, Calvin A. & Roberts, Susan A. (2004). ''A History of New Mexico''. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. * Robertson, Roland G. (1999). ''Competitive Struggle: America's Western Fur Trading Posts, 1764–1865''. Caldwell, Idaho:Caxton Press. * Thrapp, Dan L. (1988). ''Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography''. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bent, St. Vrain and Company Fur trade Oregon Country Republic of Texas 1830s in Mexico 1840s in Mexico 1830s in the Republic of Texas 1840s in the Republic of Texas Defunct companies based in Missouri Defunct companies based in New Mexico Companies established in 1830 American companies disestablished in 1849 1830 establishments in Mexico 1840s disestablishments in Mexico 1830 establishments in Missouri 1840s disestablishments in Missouri