Robert Campbell (February 12, 1804 – October 16, 1879) was an Irish immigrant who became an American frontiersman, fur trader and businessman. His St. Louis home is now preserved as the Campbell House Museum.
Early life Robert Campbell was born on February 12, 1804. Campbell was a Presbyterian of Scottish descent. He was born in his family's home, Aughalane (pronounced "Ochalane"). The house was built by Hugh Campbell in 1786 near Plumbridge, County Tyrone, in modern-day Northern Ireland. Hugh placed a pair of stone plaques above the door, inscribing one with his name and the other with the coat of arms of the Duke of Argyll and Chief of Clan Campbell in Scotland. Aughalane is today preserved by the Ulster American Folk Park near Omagh, County Tyrone.National Museums Northern Ireland, "Campbell House". Retrieved July 1, 2022.
Campbell was the youngest child of his father's second wife and therefore was due to inherit next to nothing. This prompted him to follow his older brother Hugh to America, arriving in Philadelphia on June 27, 1822. How he spent his first year is largely unknown, but a meeting with John O'Fallon in 1823 offered potential. Like Robert, O'Fallon was an immigrant from Ireland who now lived in St. Louis, and he was employed as a sutler at Council Bluffs. Robert was offered the position of assistant clerk, working the winter at Bellevue on the Missouri River (near present-day Omaha, Nebraska). Robert, who had lung issues as a child, suffered greatly through the winter, and he moved to O'Fallon's St. Louis store. O'Fallon introduced him to Doctor Bernard Farrar, who advised Robert, "your symptoms are consumptive and I advise you to go to the Rocky Mountains. I have before sent two or three young men there in your condition, and they came back restored to health and healthy as bucks."
Initial western expedition (1825–1829) Campbell joined fur trader Jedediah S. Smith in an expedition leaving St. Louis for the Rocky Mountains on November 1, 1825. With the financial backing of William H. Ashley and his Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Smith assembled a group of sixty men, including experienced explorers and traders Hiram Scott, Jim Beckwourth, Moses Harris, and Louis Vasquez. After becoming aware of Campbell's skills and education, Smith asked him to act as clerk for the expedition.
Campbell's initial journey into the American west included a harsh winter spent with Pawnee tribesmen south of the Republican River. After the spring thaw, the group traveled north of the Platte River to the traders' Rendezvous in Cache Valley, in modern Utah and southern Idaho. There Ashley sold his percentage of the expedition to Smith, David Edward Jackson, and William Sublette. The expedition then split into two branches. Smith struck off to the southwest while Jackson and Sublette moved northwest to the Teton Range and the Snake River. Campbell traveled with the Jackson/Sublette party, and later wrote that the group "…hunted along the forks of the Missouri, following the Gallatin, and trapped along across the headwaters of the Columbia."Carter, p. 298 The group wintered, once again together, in Cache Valley during the winter of 1826-27.
In late 1827, Campbell led a party into Flathead territory and suffered losses to Indian attack. Many survivors of his small group decided to winter in Flathead territory, but Campbell and two others left to contact the larger party wintering in Cache Valley. Traveling slowly due to harsh weather, they arrived at the Hudson's Bay Company camp of Peter Skene Ogden on the Snake River in February 1828. After leaving word of their whereabouts, Campbell returned and finished the winter with his men in Flathead territory.
In the spring of 1828 the group trapped along Clark's Fork and Bear Lake. They were attacked by Blackfeet on their way to the summer rendezvous, but suffered light losses and brought in their beaver pelts. After the summer trading, Campbell joined Jim Bridger in a trapping expedition to Crow country in northeastern Wyoming, wintering in the Wind River area. In the spring of 1829, Campbell decided to return briefly to Ireland to see to family affairs. Entrusted with forty-five packs of beaver skins by the larger group, he arrived in St. Louis in late August. He sold the furs for "…$22,476 dollars and received payment for his services amounting to $3,016."Carter, pg. 300; Nester, 43-44
Pierre's Hole and Fort William (1832–1835) When Campbell returned to the west, he was asked by William Sublette to form a partnership. Sublette even agreed to an odd relationship for the first year, making Robert a lieutenant but having him purchase his own goods for rendezvous, using the sale of this merchandise as the stake he needed to officially join the business. William Clark granted Robert and William Sublette's new company a nominally legal liquor license, enabling them to carry 450 gallons of extremely valuable whiskey to the next rendezvous.
The successful trapping season in 1832 concluded with the famous Battle of Pierre's Hole. As the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole was breaking up, a group of Gros Ventres (sometimes mistaken as Blackfeet), who had been dogging the trappers as they arrived, bumped into a trapping brigade as it left the valley, sparking a full-fledged battle. The Gros Ventres built quick fortifications out of downed logs as trapper reinforcements arrived, commencing a day-long siege. Between three and twelve trappers were killed, and nine to fifty Gros Ventres. The Natives were able to retreat during the night. Robert, who was interrupted in the middle of writing a letter to his brother, joined the fighting. Sublette and Robert agreed to dispose of each other's property, in the event of one's death. Both men led a charge on the Indian defenses, with Robert at one point believing he had been wounded, and Sublette taking a bullet in the arm. Robert helped Sublette from the field. The Battle of Pierre's Hole was later dramatized in Washington Irving's The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (1837).Hardee, 182-183; 187-189; 203-212
Sublette and Robert shifted their focus from the rendezvous to challenging John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company by building forts adjacent to Astor's. Robert built Fort William in 1833 near the mouth of the Yellowstone River. The fort dealt primarily in buffalo robes from local Native American tribes, primarily the Assiniboine, Cree, and Gros Ventres. Fort William and its nearby rival, Fort Union, competed for loyalty from the Chiefs through gifts, generous deals, and alcohol. Robert proved an able diplomat, notably securing the loyalty of a Cree chief named Sonnant (Mahsette-Kuiuab, called “le Sonnant” by the French), but he was otherwise frustrated and depressed during his time at Fort William. Their company was successful, however, and Astor's company paid them to leave the area.
The fur trade was quickly dying, and Sublette and Campbell opted to close down their last outpost and concentrate on the buffalo robe trade and dry goods. They left at just the right time: in 1835, their robes sold for more than beaver pelts for the first time. Robes had risen to $6 each by the end of the decade, while beaver had fallen to $2.50 as the beaver population plummeted and the market turned increasingly to silk.Nester, 75-104
Sublette and Campbell (1836–1845) St. Louis, as the base of operations for the fur trade, was a natural place for Sublette and Campbell to open their business. In September 1836 the partners purchased a brick building at 7 Main Street for $12,823. From here, they engaged in the dry goods business, frequently selling on credit. Robert demonstrated a keen knowledge of affairs of money. In the age of unbridled capitalism, Robert proved to be firm yet just, pursuing payments of debts owed, but always paying his own debts. He never really pursued the robber baron practices of later in the century.Nester, 106-112
Campbell and Sublette amassed large amounts of real estate in the upper Mississippi valley, served as loan agents for several banks, and invested in the St. Louis Insurance Company, the St. Louis Hotel Company, and the Marine Insurance Company. All of this investment, however, threatened to overextend the partners. They frequently teetered on the edge of bankruptcy because of difficulty in collecting from their debtors. Despite these issues, Campbell continued to rise through the ranks of society. He was elected by the state legislature to the Missouri State Bank's board of directors in December 1839. Although he rarely had much cash on hand, he was financially sound enough to purchase a large tract of land in what is today Kansas City's downtown.Nester, 120-128, 130; Campbell House Courier, "Did You Know?" Spring 2002, pg. 3
1842 saw the end of "Sublette and Campbell," as the partners decided not to renew their partnership. Both remained good friends, however, and the store was simply divided down the center by a wall. An economic crisis in the 1840s threatened to ruin Campbell, but the timely influx of cash from Scottish Laird (Lord) Sir William Drummond Stewart, a good friend, prevented much worse. Sublette became seriously ill and died in 1845, depriving Robert of a close friend and ally.Nester, 144-145; 150
Expansion (1845–1860) Campbell was highly successful in the remainder of the 1840s. He was elected as the President of the State Bank of Missouri in 1846, increasing its deposits and value of its notes. Robert's stewardship of the bank was highly successful, and bank notes signed by him were accepted across the nation. The position also came with a $3,000 annual salary. Robert succeeded in finding a new partner as well, William Campbell (no relation), forming the firm "R. and W. Campbell" in 1848. The new firm invested in railroads and steamboats, and was also successful at placing allies as sutlers in several western forts.Nester, 173–184
Campbell was long recognized as a man capable of understanding the West. Thus, when the Mexican–American War broke out in 1846, Robert was appointed a state militia colonel charged with raising and outfitting 400 cavalry volunteers. Victory for the United States enabled Campbell to begin expanding his business into the American Southwest along the El Paso Trail. Campbell also outfitted John C. Fremont's 1843 Expedition of exploration in the region. His involvement with famous figures of the west extended beyond military matters as well. Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, the famous Jesuit missionary, had several interactions with Campbell throughout the years. Because of his experiences in the west, the United States government called upon Campbell to participate in the negotiations for the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. The fort had in fact once been owned by Campbell and Sublette, under the name Fort William (this is not to be confused with the 1833 Fort William, on the Yellowstone River).Nester, 148, 173–174