The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-06-01

had been organized at st. Louis. Will
lam Ashley had moved from Virginia
to Missouri and at st. Louis became
acquainted with Maj. Andrew Henry,
the former trapper of Lisa's defunct
Missouri Fur company. They abandon
ed their mines at Potosi and organized
the Rocky Mountain Fur company in
1922.
Instead of employing Indians. half
breeds and voyageurs, they decided to
employ only white men as trapperS.
They advertised for men in Missouri
papers. They decided to employ only
real men with the strength of their un-
dertaking. William and Milton Sublette,
Jedediah Smith, James Bridger, Joseph
Meek, David Jackson and Etlenne
Provost were some of the men who re-
sponded. BY the time the Hudson's Bay
men under Ross got to the Bitter Root.
the Rocky mountain men were there
also. Seven of them under Jedediah
Smith spent the winter of 1924 at
Flathead house with Hudson's Bay
trappers. They came in with a party
Of Ross Iroquois trappers, reputedly
lost, and Ross suspected they had
bought his Indian trappers' furs and
cached them. In fact, Smith admitted
that he had received los beaver skins
for bringing the lost Indians to
camp. There was nothing Ross could
do about it. Fun traders had n OBJ
~jective only-to get the goods, no mat
ter how.
Ashley mounted his mountain men
well, supplied provisions and plenty of
ammunition and instructed them to get
furs by trapping. trading or trickery,
and to live as far as possible on the
land.
Ross brought to Flathead house, that
year. 5000 beaver, and other pelts and
described the take as the best he had
known. In four years, Smith learned,
the Hudson's Bay company had taken
10000 beaver skins.
Major Henry left the Rocky Mountain
Flu company in 1924, after bitter eXper-
fences. In 1926, Major Ashley. rich and
! successful, sold his interests in the ON
pany to Jedediah Smith, Jackson and
William Sublette. In 1880 these three,
in turn, sold to James Bridger, Thomas
Fitzpatrick and Milton Sublette. Will
lam Sublette went to transporting sup
plies up the river for the trappers' trade
and later difficulties between himself
and his brother made enemies for the
company. Bridger, Fitzpatrick, 10 Meek,
Kit Carson and the rest of Bridger'S
! associates were good fighters, but their
! trade was doomed. They could not
fight the American Fur company, the
dominant concern in the American fur
business.
The firm was organized at St. Louis
by John Jacob Aston about the time the
Rocky Mountain Fur company started.
In 1927 it absorbed the Columbia Fur
company and made itself the most pow
erful rival in the field. Bridger's CON-
pany came to agreement with them to
divide the territory between them.
Terms were such that Bridger and his
men really entered the employ of their
rival, in fact if not in name. In 1884
the Rocky Mountain Fur company held
its last rendezvous. Thereafter its men
were employed as individuals by the
American Fur company, which con-
trolled the fur trade east of the Rocky
mountains.
A new element had entered the va
rious rivalries.
In 1884 the Rocky Mountain Fur COM
pany had made a bitter enemy Of Ma
thaniel j. Wyeth. Wyeth was a Mass
achusetts man who had met with re-
verses in the west. On his way home
he contracted for supplies with the
Rocky Mountain Fur company, of which
William Sublette was a member. Be-
fore he got the supplies to them the
firm r~eorganized. William began ship
ping goods on his own account and
when his brother, Milton Sublette,
wanted to stay by the bargain and take
Wyeth's goods, William was enraged.
Milton was sick and unable to attend
the rendezvous. William hurried his
cargo through and persuaded the rest
Of the men to take them instead of
Wyeth's. Wyeth was left holding the
sack-left in the wilderness with a
cargo of goods he had borrowed money
to supply and couldn't sell. Wyeth was
outraged by such dishonest treatment
themselves he said, Indignantly, Gen
tlemen, I will yet roll a stone into your
garden that you will never be able to
get out"
He set about it by organizing his own
fur company, but, finding he could not
outmanage the Hudson's Bay company,
he sold his interests to them, bringing
them nee more into fierce competition
with American trappers. This was the
finishing blow for the American Fur
company. In 1889 it dissolved without
making any provisions for its employees.
They had been trappers all their lives
and hardly knew how to turn to any
thing else. Some went to the Hudson's
Bay company. Some scattered, north,
south. west. Some continued to trap in
dependently. But the old colorful life
was done. Come" said Robert Newell
to 10 Meek, "the fur trade is dead in
the Rocky mountains and it is no place
for us now"