Note 212 — TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA, IN THE YEARS 1832, 1833, AND 1834 (continued 4)

Joseph Robidoux, whose trading post was on the site of the future city of St. Joseph, which took its name from its founder. The Robidoux were a family of fur-traders. The father, Joseph, came from Montreal to Kaskaskia, and having won a competence removed to St. Louis, where at his house the first territorial legislature of Missouri met in 1812. Joseph, jr., was born in 1783, and early entered the fur-trade. Lewis and Clark met "young Mr. Robidoux" on their return journey (1806), and scrutinized his license with some suspicion. Lewis also complained of the loyalty of the elder trader, saying that he enticed the Indians from their allegiance to the United States. The younger Robidoux lived for many years at the post where Maximilian met him—in 1868 dying at this place, where the city had already sprung up around him. See sketch in Joseph Tasse, Canadiens du Nord-Ouest (Montreal, 1878), ii, p. 131.—Ed.