Fontenelle's Post, first known as Pilcher's Post, and the site of the later city of Bellevue, was built in 1822 in the

Nebraska Territory The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Nebraska. The Nebrask ...

by Joshua Pilcher, then president of the Missouri Fur Company. Located on the west side of the Missouri River, it developed as one of the first European-American settlements in Nebraska. The Post served as a center for trading with local

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

Otoe The Otoe ( Chiwere: Jiwére) are a Native American people of the Midwestern United States. The Otoe language, Chiwere, is part of the Siouan family and closely related to that of the related Iowa, Missouria, and Ho-Chunk tribes. Histori ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, and

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

tribes. In 1828 Lucien Fontenelle, a French-American fur trader representing the

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was a prominent American company that sold furs, skins, and buffalo robes. It was founded in 1808 by John Jacob Astor, a German Americans, German immigrant to the United States. During its heyday in the early 19th c ...

, bought the post and became the lead agent. In 1832 he sold the post to the US Government, which used it for the Missouri River Indian Agency (or Bellevue Agency) until about 1842., ''Nebraska National Register Sites in Sarpy County'', 17 Aug 2007, accessed 9 Aug 2008 The Post also served as the first home of Moses and Eliza Merrill,

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

who arrived in 1833. The US Indian agent offered them the trading post building as a temporary home. In 1835 the Merrills founded the first Christian mission in

to serve the Otoe.

History

In 1822 Joshua Pilcher of the Missouri Fur Company built a fur trading post on the west bank of the Missouri River to trade with the local Native American tribes of Omaha, Otoe, Missouri and Pawnee. Fur trading in the United States was not regulated by governments, and fur traders competed madly for the lucrative business, enticing the American Indians with various trade goods and often liquor. At first Pilcher competed with

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting History of opiu ...

's Cabanné's Post of the

(AFC) north of Bellevue. In 1823 Astor bought Pilcher's, bringing it into his monopoly of the fur trade under the American Fur Company. In 1828 the trader Lucien Fontenelle, born into a wealthy French Creole family in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, purchased Pilcher's Trading Post. Having started trading at age 19, Fontenelle was then 28 and a representative of the American Fur Company. The site became known as Fontenelle's Post. Like many traders, Fontenelle had married a high-status Native American woman, and formed important alliances with her people. She was ''Me-um-bane'' (Bright Star), a daughter of the Omaha principal chief Big Elk. They had five children together: Logan (b. 1825), Albert (b. 1827), Tecumseh (b. 1829) (named for the great

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

chief), Henry (b. 1831) and Susan (b. 1833). Fontenelle sent their sons to St. Louis to ensure they had European-American style schooling. Although the mother's people would protect her children, the Omaha had a

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

system in which children belonged to their father's

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same ''nomen gentilicium'' and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was cal ...

. Children of a "white" father had no place in the tribe; generally unless such mixed-race boys were adopted by a man of the tribe, they could not have status in it. Melvin Randolph Gilmore, "The True Logan Fontenelle"
''Publications of the Nebraska State Historical Society,'' Vol. 19, edited by Albert Watkins, Nebraska State Historical Society, 1919, pp. 64-65, at GenNet, accessed 25 August 2011 With the fur trade declining because of changes in taste in Europe and the decline of game in the US, in 1832 Fontenelle sold the post to the US government. It was used by the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

as the headquarters of the Missouri River Indian Agency, also called the Bellevue Agency. The Bureau of Indian Affairs allowed missionaries to come to the Indian reservations. In 1833, the US Indian agent allowed Moses and Eliza Merrill,

, to live at the Post as a temporary home. In 1835 the Merrills founded the first Christian mission in

. Fontenelle was appointed US Indian agent at Fort Laramie and his family joined him there in 1837. He died in 1840 at the age of 40. From 1840 to 1853, Logan Fontenelle, the oldest son of Lucien and ''Me-um-bane'', worked as an official

interpreter Interpreting is translation from a spoken or signed language into another language, usually in real time to facilitate live communication. It is distinguished from the translation of a written text, which can be more deliberative and make use o ...

at the US Indian agency at Fontenelle's Post. He gained much respect among both the Omaha and European-American communities. He served as an interpreter during the important negotiations of 1853-1854 that resulted in the Omaha ceding most of their territory to the United States, in exchange for annuities and goods, and settling on a reservation in northeastern Nebraska.(n.d
"Logan Fontenelle"
Nebraska Department of Education, accessed 4 Aug 2008 The town of Bellevue, Nebraska was established in 1855 after developing around the post and Indian agency.

Iowa trading post

At one time, the Bellevue and Council Bluffs area was bristling with trading posts on both sides of the Missouri River, reflecting the busy economy related to western emigration. When the French Creole Peter Sarpy came from New Orleans about 1823, he first worked for his brother's father-in-law, John Cabanné, who had a post for the American Fur Company. Some years later, Sarpy established his own trading post on the east side of the Missouri River, in what became

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

Marriage and family

Like many other fur traders, Sarpy married a local woman, ''Ni-co-mi'' of the

tribe. She had a daughter, Mary Gale, born during her first marriage to John Gale, an American surgeon who had been stationed at Fort Atkinson (Nebraska). When it was closed in 1827, he was reassigned. Sarpy and Nicomi also had children. ''Ni-co-mi'' wanted to stay with her people. Her daughter Mary Gale married Joseph LaFlesche, a

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

fur trader adopted as a son by the Omaha chief Big Elk, and groomed and named by him as his successor as the future principal chief.

Sarpy's Post, Iowa

Sarpy's post was located at an area variously called: ''Point aux Poules'' (Hens' Point), Point of the Pulls, Pull Point, Sarpy's Point, Nebraska Post Office, Council Bluffs Post Office, and Traders Point. Owned by Astor's American Fur Company, Sarpy's Post served mostly European and United States travelers, and especially outfitted pioneer expeditions going west.(n.d.
Ray Raymond, "Council Bluffs: 1846-1852", map showing changed course of the river, and narrative
Rootsweb.com The Post was located downriver from present-day

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The population was 62,799 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, te ...

. By 1846 Sarpy expanded his operations to run Sarpy's Ferry, which provided passage for travelers across the Missouri River between Bellevue and St. Mary's. He carried travelers for the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...

, men going west for the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

, and

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

pioneers. Sarpy County, Nebraska, the area around the town of Bellevue, was named after him. In 1849 a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

was established on the Iowa side of the river; it was called Nebraska. In 1850 it was called the Council Bluffs Post Office and was located at Sarpy's Point, present-day Iowa. It was reopened on the Nebraska side in 1852 just south of the curve of the river at Sarpy's Point (Iowa) and named Trader's Point Post Office.

References

External links

Historic image
of Fontenelle's Post.

Nebraska Studies website