Robert Campbell (frontiersman)

"For a list of other individuals by the same name, see Robert Campbell."

Robert Campbell (February 12, 1804 - October 16, 1879) was an Irish immigrant who became an American frontiersman, fur trader and businessman.

Although Campbell was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, his family was of Scottish descent. At the age of eighteen, he followed his older brother Hugh to North Carolina. Some years later, Hugh settled permanently in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Robert Campbell moved further west, arriving in St. Louis, Missouri in 1824. Later that year, he was diagnosed with consumption, and was advised by his physician to travel further west.

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 Platte River. After the spring thaw, the group traveled north of the Platte River to the trader's 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 other 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 to St. Louis. Entrusted with forty-five packs of beaver skins by the larger group, he arrived in the city in late August. He sold the furs for "...$22,476 dollars and received payment for his services amounting to $3,016." (Carter, p. 300)

Later career

Campbell had a generally successful career in the American west. His participation with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, in competition with Hudson's Bay and the American Fur Company, was profitable as was his long formal partnership with trapper William Sublette.

He later returned to St. Louis, established himself as a businessman, real estate mogul and banker, and there married and raised a family. Campbell died on October 16, 1879.

References

* Carter, Harvey L. "Robert Cambell", featured in "Trappers of the Far West", Leroy R. Hafen, editor. 1972, Arthur H. Clark Company, reprint University of Nebraska Press, October 1983. ISBN 0-8032-7218-9