Feb. 8, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
211 
Ancient Landmarks 
T HE junction of the Missouri and the Yel¬ 
lowstone rivers was a favorite place for 
the early fur trading posts. There stood 
Fort Union, of all Missouri River posts, the most 
famous. There in later years was the mili¬ 
tary fort Buford, familiar to all travelers of 
more recent times who passed up and down the 
Missouri in the old days of river travel. There, 
too, was Fort William, built by William Sub¬ 
lette, and like many another post named in his 
honor, in which was to be carried on a trade in 
opposition to Fort Union of the American Fur 
Company. The two posts were less than three 
miles apart and were about equally distant from 
the mouth of the Yellowstone River, Fort Union 
being above and Fort William below. The site 
of Fort William was almost the same as that 
of the later military post, Fort Buford. Fort 
William was built in the year 1833 and was con¬ 
structed of cottonwood logs. The wooden fort 
was later replaced by one of sods or adobes, and 
the walls of this are said by Dr. Coues to have 
been still standing in 1865, when they were torn 
dow r n to be used in building Fort Buford. 
It would be curious, though not very practi¬ 
cal, to go back over the old writings concerning 
the fur trade prior to 1870, and see how many 
Fort Williams there had been. No doubt the 
most famous was that Hudson’s Bay post on 
the north shore of Lake Superior, which was the 
starting point for all the fur traders who spread 
themselves over the Northwest by way of the 
Grand Portage and Lake Winnipeg, but of the 
Fort Williams that existed on the rivers of the 
plains, and toward the verge of the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, those of the north were almost all of them 
named after Sublette, while those of the south, 
if there was more than One, were named for 
William Bent. 
Larpenteur in his journal, edited by Dr. Coues, 
tells how he took part in the building of this 
in 1871. The stockade was of cottonwood logs 
eighteen feet in length, hewn on three sides, and 
planted three feet deep in the ground. The 
house of the bourgeois stood at the back of the 
inclosure opposite the front gate. The store 
which constituted the warehouse was forty feet 
in length and eighteen feet in width. There 
were two rooms for men’s quarters, the carpen¬ 
ter s shop, blacksmith’s shop, ice house, meat 
house and two good bastions, but Larpenteur 
says that these were more for show than for 
protection, and that there was not the least 
danger from Indians for any white man, except 
the free trappers. Large war parties frequently 
came to the fort, but behaved well, going away 
satisfied with a few loads of ammunition and 
some tobacco. 
In his book, “Among the Indians,” published 
m 1868, H. A. Boiler speaks of passing down the 
river to Fort Union and then of passing the 
mouth of the Yellowstone to Fort William where 
“a huge beacon fire was blazing on the bank, sur¬ 
rounded by a crowd of wild looking mountaineers 
eagerly awaiting our return. Morning at length 
dawned upon the dismantled fort where but a 
short time before all had been life and anima¬ 
tion. It now had a deserted and forlorn appear¬ 
ance, and the crumbling adobe walls would soon 
be all that had remained of what had once been 
the bustling post. We took on board the pro¬ 
ceeds of the last year’s trade, consisting of over 
a thousand packs of robes and peltry, and with 
a farewell salute, our prow was again turned to¬ 
ward the settlement.” This was in 1858 and 
seems to show that the post known as Fort Wil¬ 
liam was abandoned in that year, it having long 
before been sold to the American Fur Company. 
There -seems to have been no reason why it 
should have been kept up in close proximity to 
Fort Union. Boiler speaks of it again toward the 
end of his book, and says during his stay at 
1833 - 4 , was the robbery of sub-traders who were 
in charge of outposts by Indians. An entry in 
Larpenteur’s Original Journal says, speaking of 
t 834 . “About the same time Mr. Jeannisse was 
attacked by some half-breeds who robbed him, 
and he had a narrow escape for his life. The 
half-breeds had been hired by Mr. Campbell as 
interpreters for the Assinaboines and Crees, but 
got in a drunken quarrel with the results said.” 
One wonders whether this Jeannisse of 1834 
was one of the two men of that name, Antoine 
and Nicholas, who were so well known from 
i860 to about 1880 on the Missouri River about 
Fort Randall and the Whetstone Agency. Jeu- 
nesse, or La Jeunesse, was, of course, a com¬ 
mon name among the early voyageurs. 
A number of years after the abandonment of 
Fort William a new post, Fort Mortimer, was 
established on the site of old Fort William and 
a little south or southeast of where Buford after¬ 
ward stood. This post was built in 1842 by Fox, 
Livingston & Co., a firm organized in opposi¬ 
tion to the American Fur Company, but unfor¬ 
tunately not very well informed about the fur 
trade. They came to the river in 1842 and the 
winter trade of 1845 and 1846 satisfied them that 
a profitable opposition could not be carried on 
to the American Fur Company, and they soon 
left the country. One of the members of this 
firm, according to Larpenteur, a Mr. Kelsey, who 
had gone out to the river under entire misap¬ 
prehension of the conditions there, was greatly 
discouraged when he came to Fort Union, and 
left a man at Fort Mortimer to take charge of 
things. Mr. Kelsey, who according to agree¬ 
ment, was to remain in the Indian country and 
make his headquarters among the Sioux, chose 
a point twenty miles below Fort Pierre oppo¬ 
site a beautiful island. Upon this there were 
four men living in a small cabin which he con¬ 
sidered his. He ordered them several times to 
leave, but they paid no attention to him and re¬ 
mained in possession. One morning the old gen¬ 
tleman armed himself and determined to make 
the men leave, and entering the cabin he fired 
FORT PIERRE. 
From a drawing made by Alexander H. Murray, June 10, 1844. 
>ost in 1833 and 1834, and gives interesting and 
imusing accounts of the efforts made to seduce 
he Indians from their allegiance to the Ameri- 
an Fur Company. 
Fort William was built after the ordinary fash- 
on of northern trading posts and was erected 
' n tand where the Fort Buford sawmill stood 
Fort Union: “The ruins of old Fort William 
were in plain sight, and the mountaineers spoke 
regretfully of the good old times when both posts 
were in the full tide of success and of the hos¬ 
pitalities that were so freely exchanged between 
them when the trading season was over.” 
One of the events of the winter of the sale, 
at one of them who was in the act of taking a 
kettle off the fire, and he fell dead in the fire. 
Another who ran out was also shot and fell dead 
over the fence. By that time a third man, who 
was trying to escape in double quick time, was 
shot through the shoulder, of which wound he 
came near losing his life. During the following 
