Robert Campbell - Mountain Man (1804 -1879)

in 1822 Robert Campbell a penniless terone teenager left this house for America two years later he was cheating death in the Rocky Mountains two men around Robert Campbell get shot so blood gets shot and wounded in the arm right in front of you guy behind him named Sinclair gets killed through scorching summers and Arctic winters in the wintertime it's minus 40 one of the first austere Scots to pioneer the true Wild West they were the first white men exploring a totally uncharted vast wilderness I like it too the astronauts of our era for ten years he shared his life with Native Americans they had no idea where they was going then they started talking to the Indian people in conversational sign language he's was an epic love story Robert wrote to Virginia you will be my counselor and my guide in life but his life also had more than its share of tragedy the Campbells had 13 children 10 of them died before the age of 8 he would become a multi-millionaire one of the wealthiest most respected men in Missouri but until now this life has remained largely unknown [Music] he's the man who's always in the background but he's always there all throughout the ten years he's in the Rockies he just does what needs to be done this is the story of Robert Campbell mountain man life would take Robert Campbell a long way from the Glen Ellie Valley and acha Lane house where he was born in 1804 his father had built the house 20 years earlier proudly marked with the Duke of Argyll's crest honoring the family Scottish roots at 18 Robert Campbell followed his older brother Hugh to America if we think about you and Robert growing up as boys they were growing up in an environment which in some respects was really quite rosy and he had that sense of prosperity what happens is after the Battle of Waterloo the Angella Napoleonic Wars the Irish economy nosedives which saw a surge in the number of people leaving Ulster at the time they of course are also younger sons Andrews the eldest they're not going to inherit the land this dip so they've got a look outside Ulster for a future Allan McFarland was also raised in the Glen le valley he's Robert Campbell's great-great great-great nephew I'm a descendant of Robert Campbell all the surviving family members are descended from his eldest brother Andrew who took over the family farm outside Plum Bridge and Robert to being the youngest in the family probably thought his prospects weren't great so like many Ulster Scots he went to seek his fortune in America like his ancestor Allen has an adventurous streak he too has led men in conflict and like Campbell he's been involved in the world of politics [Music] now he's traveling to America to retrace his ancestor steps and shed light on his remarkable untold story Campbell would become one of the first handful of men into the vast uncharted Rocky Mountains the select band of frontier fur trappers had become known as the mountain men starting as a Clark he would gain rapid promotion to leader of his own trapping brigade after ten years in the mountains he'd spend the next 40 building a business empire in commerce property banking even river boats in fact he gave Mark Twain his first job as a mississippi river pilot he was a key figure in major historical events but always in the background we're left was just a few images to show what he was like I think and it is a scotch-irish trait I mean I was brought up not to be bold that's a word that your parents used certainly in my time you don't you be bold you behave yourself and I think it's a scotch-irish or maybe it's an Irish saying about not being extrovert Robert was almost certainly brought up like that you're working hard in the background you know going and saying well here's a chance here on making money and of course he died a multimillionaire and I just feel he's been lost to history and I'm keen Ted's put him back where he belongs [Music] Allen's journey begins in st. Louis Missouri it would soon become a key city for waves of settlers traveling west but when Campbell arrived in 1823 for a job as a store clerk it was little more than a night post for Campbell and his contemporaries this was where civilization ended the time Robert arrived here st. Louis with being a small village on the frontier he would have seen Native Americans place of hustle and bustle and a lot of people moving through you know they call it the Gateway to the West because from our earliest days people are always using this as a stop in moving further west Robert Campbell would eventually become a leading citizen of st. Louis the famous Gateway Arch marks the spot where he set up his first business premises but the most tangible reminder of his life here is the home he shared with his wife and children now the Campbell House Museum [Music] robert's fur trade experience robert's early mercantile experience mrs. Campbell's devotion to her children her surviving sons very much romanticized that family history allen's fascinated by the vast archive of Robert Campbell's personal papers and effects this was where his ancestors eventful life ended but it's where Allen's journey into the past begins his personal possessions his homestead his personal papers were all conserved and so Ann in telling Roberts story were able to tell the Irish immigration American expansion story all the things that's very interesting as their mother Elizabeth Buchanan the Buchanan's were very important family very much connected into emigration they were involved in the emigrant tree and lots of connections through the port of Derry to the new world so they were aware I think of that wider sort of sense of commercial opportunities [Music] in 1803 America then consisting of just 17 eastern states paid 15 million dollars to Emperor Napoleon of France for a huge swathe of land in the center of the country [Music] this was unexplored wilderness and home to many native tribes the deal was known as the Louisiana Purchase the French had started the fairtrade in present-day Canada mink Fox and otter had long been popular for garments but demand for top hats made from beaver would surpass everything else making this new territory a huge draw to the burgeoning American fur trade the fastest growing business in the country the Americans decided to just recruit trappers bring them up the Missouri River the trappers would spend the winter living in the mountains so that that's kind of the situation that we found when Robert Campbell came out as a mountain man when he first travelled into the wilderness in 1825 Campbell was following other young men attracted by this ad placed in the st. Louis newspaper history would call him Ashley's 100 the key person was General William Ashley who'd been a military officer in the war of 1812 so you had a very clear military command structure and these were military operations you of your skites out in front you have people out making meat and killing Buffalo you have your flank guards and you have your rear guard but when you get right up in the mountains and the streams often it was two people and and usually what happened is that one of them kept guard because of the threat where's the other put the traps in [Music] what was a gently reared ulster farm boy to make of this nothing could have prepared Campbell for the life-changing journey he was about to take how did someone who grew up in a farm in Ireland that wasn't particularly rugged or certainly not a wilderness that he find himself living this kind of amazingly rugged life out in the rocky mountains especially given his health in his early days here in st. Louis he began to suffer from a breathing ailment and terrible coughing and coughing up blood and and he saw a doctor here in st. Louis that said go west young men your symptoms are consumptive and I advise you to go to the rocky mountains I had before sent two or three young men there in your condition and they came back restored to health and hearty as bucks it's one thing to be advised to go west and breed the mountain air and it's another thing to join the fur trade and arguably add to some romance because certainly in st. Louis there would have been many many stories about the fur trade the river trade the Native Americans in a wilderness far from civilization the threats all around Campbell were very real indeed you don't have a house you probably have a tent you can't really build a fire in the tent so you got to fire outside you're still contending with the potential for hostile Indians coming around and you have animals that can eat you bears were the fiercest of predators bear attacks the stuff of legend one survivor of such an attack was about to become Campbell's mentor and friend [Music] Jedediah Smith the description is that the bear put his jaws around jet Smith's head and bit down and clawed at him broke ribs almost lost an ear by the time they had killed the bear and laid Smith down one of Smith's men said your ear is hanging by a thread we're not gonna be able to save it and Smith is quoted as saying you must save my ear and sew it on somehow so they went got a needle and a thread and someone actually sewed his ear back onto his head Dok ivory understands more than most what Campbell went through in the early 1800s he is a 21st century mountain man who spent half his life journeying into the wilderness traveling on horseback and on foot often on his own living off the land doc belongs to a select invitation-only group the american mountain men a lot of people see people dressed like me or similar and assume that they're hardcore when in reality they're kind of reenactors live it for a couple of days and go down and have a shower for me it's a lifestyle and so for me I'm not satisfied with just playing it I'm living it doc will guide Alan through the survival skills learned by Campbell and the other Mountaineers as they first called themselves when we refer to him as mountain man they were Mountaineers because they traveled the valleys and they traveled up in the hills looking for beaver but generally they could make better time along the river courses than they could trying to go over the top of the mountains like that unless it was an Indian trail that they knew about doc can catch and skin a beaver or deer he can make his own lead shot over an open fire he can survive at 40 below and he's taking Alan into the wilderness where his ancestor worked and wandered I may not know every fact about the fur trade but I can tell you what it feels like to tip over a dugout canoe in March I can tell you what it feels like to cross the desert in the same conditions at the same time period in the same number of miles dealing with sleet dealing with wind dealing with snow of dealing with rain and dealing with river crossings and that's a great satisfaction to me [Music] [Music] when Robert Campbell's set off on that first expedition as Clarke to Jedediah Smith he would live in the wilderness without a break for the next four years [Music] the fur trade was centered on present-day Wyoming Montana Idaho and Utah back then the first maps called it unorganized territory there was 60 men to the brigade Ashleigh had hired 60 men and they were heading out on their way to meet up with the trappers that had stayed in the mountains that winter Smith had been in the mountains for a couple of years so he hadn't some experience and he was teaching it to Campbell Campbell would quickly learn every aspect of the trappers life and he needed to be a fast learner well first of all they were seventeen eighteen hundred miles from any civilization in either direction so you know they were pretty much relying on one another and what they had with him as campbell said it in his diary we left to the st. Louis too late they left in November and they hit a tremendous bad winter and snow storm and winter was so bad half their mules were dying and they they were running out of food they had to eat their mules and it was a tough survival situation for everyone the snow was up to the chests of the horses they had rudimentary idea where they were going but they basically had to follow the river or an Indian trail there were no good maps at all one of my favorite stories Joe meek is so hungry he puts his hand into an anthill and lets the ants crawl up on his hand and then he licks them off that's how hungry he was they're thirsty they take turns today they cut Joe Meeks Mules neck and drain the blood out tomorrow they'll cut somebody else's horse and drain that you know not enough to kill the animal make them a little weak but enough that they get some sustenance from that animals blood it was a tough way to live [Music] the sort of mythology of the independent mountain man trapper coming into the wilderness they weren't all that rugged and many of them perished from various things not only being killed by Indians but also the cold winter weather and starvation and so forth a lot of mountain men drowned crossing rivers there was a lot of fatalities there I would think if somebody did a study it was a lot an approach like 15 to 20 percent of the deaths they had recorded were crossing rivers just drowning because in the springtime the snowmelt all the rivers are are roaring like the first Ulster Scots settlers in the East a century earlier Campbell and the other trappers would come to rely on native people learning skills to help them survive the extremes of this harsh environment they had no idea where they was going so then they started talking to the Indian people in conversational sign language that was the only way that you can communicate but also that is the only way that our Indian people could communicate I see you you see me you come I'll come there we'll meet we'll sit down and we'll talk maybe we'll shake hands who may be friends or we may leave us enemies having contact intimate contact with a tribe or a village under a leader was very very important mountain men adopted native clothing like buckskin and buffalo hide Weiner in the Rockies is what the trapper was always thinking about so let's kind of get you dressed for winter you're not quite ready so let's start here with the coat and this is an old Buffalo robe that I used as a mani over my packhorse may not fit quite as well over your buckskin jacket but there you go that feels pretty good doesn't it now the questions asked why do you have the fur on the outside well the animal has the fur on the outside and as it rains he sheds it but let's put you on a proper hat for the winter let's put you on a little bit a wolf and wolf fur is a very nice fur for the winter oh yeah now you're starting to take on a little a bit of that Campbell look I like but your hands are exposed and probably the best fur for protection on your hands is a beaver to go ahead and put your hand in there mmm lovely woman - how about that yeah how about that you know I didn't realize you were such a hairy man remember if he went back to st. Louis from the mountains here comes Robert Campbell and they go oh my gosh what happened to Robert Campbell he was such a nice man and now you come back and you look like you've changed but you just adapted amazing frozen and starving Campbell's expedition was saved from complete disaster by taking refuge in a pony village the ponies were away from their camp some of the people that were with Smith and Campbell knew where there was corn caches and they got into those to feed themselves the relations the Pawnee had with the traders that are coming through it was really pretty good a lot of fur bearing animals out here pawnee were more than happy to trap them and skin him and give him to the traders and in return they get all these trade goods so you're getting pots pans guns knives things that make their life a whole lot easier the Indians come back the ponies come back realized that the Americans along with Campbell are gonna reimburse them for using their corn and I think the chief found that to be an endearing characteristic and some sort of frontier justice if you will and invites them to stay in his camp I think it shows Smith's leadership and he's already anointed if you will Campbell as his second-in-command and that from that point on Campbell starts to learn at Smith's side how you can make friends with people that you've just met and how you can help them they help you most of the traders were actually decent guys that dealt pretty fairly with the Indians and word gets around fast if you're a cheat and any man knows when he's been cheated any human you know you know when you're being cheated and you want to repeat business with someone that you know cheated you twice at least and so Indians were the same way they knew when they were being treated poorly Cambell zoster Scots family were divided Presbyterians with a strict moral code his own sense of honesty and integrity would serve him well in his dealings with Indians in fact he became blood brother to a flathead chief Robert Campbell I think was a man of high integrity if he told you he was gonna do it he was gonna follow through if he told you he couldn't do it you knew that he dot it through and didn't see it as a plausible way to go every time you hear about Campbell he's trustworthy he's dependable and he's a guy that would have your back [Music] the daily challenges Campbell faced must have seemed a million miles from his upbringing in rural Ulster and the trade he was learning was not for the faint-hearted so here we have exactly the habitats of what they were looking for they were looking for beaver that we're building dams using the Willows as their habitat for eating and also damming up the creek so you would see a series of these going down this Creek here and there's good sign you can see a fresh-cut Beaver stick there but the question is how does a trapper get that furry beaver caught and then processed well this is what they used to catch them with an original beaver trap from about 1830s which was the time of Robert Campbell so you were holding a trap literally that he would have been well acquainted with this is the pan this is the dog when the dog is flipped over in this groove the pan is set the jaws are open the beaver come and stepped into the pan this jaws slam shut and then you weighed in the times I've waded up to here to get that furry beasts so that we can make some kind of credit money and Rhonda after winter in the wilderness Campbell and the others were ready for their annual highlight rendezvous this was the time of year when trappers traders and Indians got together to sell their furs get fresh supplies for the year ahead and let their hair down when they got to rendezvous these men had been in the mountains without any company and well they got together and they basically went absolutely down when you got to rendezvous and there were things you hadn't tasted in a year all caution to the wind whiskey on the house we've got meat we've got dried fruit we've got chocolate we've got coffee and we've got whiskey a Presbyterian raised in Ulster could never have imagined scenes like this the kegs would be broken out and the man would be paper and there are the most amazing scenes of people shooting each other Western drunken brawls they would do horse racing there is one account that even the straight-laced Campbell over indulged it describes Campbell on his knees on the grass as he puts at giving forth clearly Robert had had a sherbet or two too many and wasn't able to keep it in trapars worked and traveled with natives established relationships with them fought and died alongside them Campbell would have lifelong friendships with several Indians including the crew chief long hair well long hair was noted for being a very wise leader from the white man's world the fascination with his hair was that his hair was very very long 11 feet or more his hair was met and measured by Campbell in this volatile and violence was a fact of life alliances constantly changed and tribes fought among themselves as well as against the fur men Indians wanted guns so they became one of the most highly prized trade items for the mountain men they were essential for survival I've fired tanks and rifles and all sorts of things cheering my movie career what sort of weapons with the mountain men have used well the weapons varied from a knife in a tomahawk to a belt pistol but the main weapon was the rifle now these are called muzzle loaders muzzle loaders are different than breech lenders as a muzzle loader you took your powder horn you poured the powder into a powder measure you poured the measure a powder in here then we take a patch and cut it off put the patch there the round ball that fits here and then we take a ramrod to seat the ball we want this prison down so that when we set the trigger and touch it off a spark will ignite the powder there and then that will ignite the main charge and boom the rifle goes off if the winds blowing if the rain is coming down it doesn't work if your Flint is dull it doesn't work dan could you wait a minute my gun would go off just give me a minute they didn't necessarily wait when it did come to a fight an indian brave could lose six deadly arrows inside a minute Campbell and the other mountain men needed their rifles to work first time horses were another prized item marauding Indians would often steal them from the mountain men they in turn would raid native villages to get them back with maybe a few extra but the Braves of the Blackfoot were feared more than any other tribe they wanted more than horses they wanted blood Blackfeet the only time they came to rendezvous they had a big fight one of our sub Indian agents met a Blackfoot chief and the Blackfoot chief told him you know we've traded with the Canadians at their forts up north of us and you send us traitors and we'll keep them alive we'll make sure they're protected but your trappers we don't like trappers coming into our country and will continue to fight them and kill them they didn't like the idea of people come in and taken something out of their area they wanted to be able they're just like anybody else if somebody's gonna make a nickel on that I want it to be me because it's in my area scalping was a common occurrence in this dangerous and volatile world by both natives and mountain men it had a profound effect on Campbell they were the first Indians that I saw scalped the Iroquois put their feet on the dead body fastened their fingers in the her and running the knife for unto skull yanked the scalp off in an instant it was a horrid sight the scalp taking usually just a small portion not taking all the hair but but cutting and taking a small portion of the hair was with proof that one had vanquished an enemy and not only that then one might wear scalps and say on a belt or part of a shirt to show I did this and then someone else in the more party to say yes and there's his scalp to prove it Campbell had his own encounters with the dreaded Blackfoot Round Valley at the foot of Bear Lake and Utah was the site for two rendevouz in 1827 and 1828 Robert Campbell was at both of them in the 1828 one he'd had a real fright he was on his way back to rendezvous from the north he got about halfway down Bear Lake and they'd camped overnight and early in the morning they were attacked by the Blackfeet [Music] [Music] they fought about a 6-hour battle when they started to run out of powder and ammunition and Campbell and so many describes as a little Spaniard it was agreed they would jump on their horses and try to break through the blackfeet lines to go down to rendezvous to provide a rescue party and that's what happened we dashed right through into the face of the enemy as it is not their mode to stand the charge they separated we went at a gallop high and the little Spaniard we were going at such speed that my horse fell with me the whole of one side of my face was skimming but he was quick to recover and galloped on for reinforcements when they returned the Blackford had fled Campbell lived four full years in the mountains over the following six he would spend time in st. Louis but was always drawn back to the wilderness the daily dangers he lived with continued to alarm his family his brother Hugh back in the safety of Philadelphia and his sister Ann at home in Ireland in the name of wonder Robert dear what keeps you on the Rocky Mountains so long exposed to wild beasts and worse than all to the fierce rage of the hostile and merciless Indians it is not justifiable on us to risk that life God give us for the sake of riches should you return home on earth there could not be a greater pleasure to us [Music] campbell's first mentor Jedediah Smith had been killed by Indians in 1831 Campbell decided it was time to strike out on his own he'd spent seven years employed by others learning how the fur trade worked now he was prepared to shoulder the risk himself bringing supplies to rendezvous [Music] I paired a visit to my relatives in Ireland in the spring of 1832 returning that spring to st. Louis I again started for the Indian country taking with me a small outfit of goods blankets clothes and only five men and 15 horses ten of the horses were loaded with merchandise well as a researcher I'm forever grateful to him for his 1832 expedition and he kept detailed records where he got all these supplies and he kept detailed records that the rendezvous as to who he sold them to and how much and so we have a great record of what it costs to outfit a contingent like that in in st. Louis and what the profit potential was for rendezvous and one thing that I remember was the fact that he bought a hundred pounds of flour for a dollar and he was selling at rendezvous for a dollar a tin cup full so that's pretty interesting good business like many Ulster Scots before and after him Campbell's saw an opportunity and grasped it his expedition would travel alongside that of his friend William sublet they would soon become successful business partners Robert Campbell was one of the few guys who really made some money in this business he came out in 32 with his first small outfit to make enough money to become a partner with Williams Sublette and then then Campbell and Sublette put together a fur trade business that just made a whole ton of money you'll find that the scots-irish were kind of the the meat and the bones and the muscle of the fur trade there was a hardiness about him and with the education and the drive to Succeed in Business rose two prominent levels MacTavish McGilvery Campbell's obviously were men who were very well respected in the North American fur trade they understand money and that gave you a huge advantage in the new world you had an expertise there that was in relatively short supply you had a lot of Labor manual labor people willing to pitch in and do the dirty work and so if you had a strong background a business background as people did announced it like the Campbells you were a huge advantage in the new world I don't think he lost money in the fur trade and because he was there he was exceedingly important to the customer of the fur trade the Indians if there's a monopoly in the fur trade the Indians get cheated but once there's - then they compete with each other and they keep the prices down and they treat you better and I think that's the role to me that Campbell deserves the greatest credit for he was a businessman he knew how to make a profit but in his dealings that I have come across with Indians I think he was an absolutely honorable guy Sublette clearly saw Campbell as an honorable man but he would soon have reason to thank Campbell for his life when they were attacked by a war party of the groove on tribe they thought at first they were seeing Buffalo coming down the hillside they got their telescopes out and lo and behold it turns out to be Indians artful revenge after one of their leaders was shot and killed by a trapper mistaking him for a Blackfoot well pretty much as soon as they realized it was Indians they sent a runner back up to the camp to get reinforcements and so Campbell and Sublette they all head down to the south about 250 trappers show up down there as reinforcements and there was some story that Cumberland Sublette made living wills as their as their galloping off they're telling each other you know I'll take care of your your family and you take care of my family and I'll make sure your will gets through the estate and they're exchanging their last will and Testaments is there is there riding off into battle [Music] Grove Anse they kind of slink back into the trees and they're just blasting away all afternoon the bloody fight would become known as the Battle of Pierre's whole it claimed over 40 lives and Campbell was at the center of it it's kind of one of those guys that was a leader but he was kind of a leader in the shadows you know it's like every time you read something Campbell's involved he may not be the primary man but he's involved I mean you take to take the battle up here Sol in 1832 two men around around Robert Campbell get shot so blood gets shot and wounded in the arm right in front of him guy behind him named Sinclair gets killed and and Robert Campbell just keeps doing what he seems to keep doing all throughout the ten years he's in the Rockies he just does what needs to be done Campbell and his accounts seems to suggest that he actually after Sublette was was wounded he actually dragged young out of the battle yes I'm calling off his safety yep that's exactly right so from that standpoint I imagine Sublette thought Campbell was quite the hero in 1835 on a break from the mountains and recuperating from his recurring chest problems at his brother's house in Philadelphia Robert met Virginia Kyle second cousin of his sister-in-law Virginia was 14 Campbell was 31 within a year he'd fallen for her I always described Virginia as being very precocious she was being courted by other men besides Robert Campbell she was a very very pretty young girl very attractive your locket even in my sickness as in health has been suspended around my neck right very soon a long and interesting letter your most affectionate though tantalizing Virginia Campbell's courtship persisted in the face of total opposition from his family his friend and partner Sublette and Virginia's mother it will be useless for you to urge this matter as I can never consent for Virginia to marry under the age of 18 separated by 17 years and a thousand miles the relationship was not without its difficulties these courting Virginia and Virginia breaks off their engagement you know Robert writes the most maudlin pathetic heartbroken letter that has ever been written in the history of pathetic love letters you cannot imagine my feelings while i thus write you the last lingering ray of happiness has now vanished and you've doomed me to a life of wretchedness against the odds the relationship survived when Virginia reached 19 her mother finally approved the Union and they married in 1841 Robert wrote to Virginia a few weeks before their marriage and the end of the letter he says something to the effect that of course you will be my counselor and my guide in life and looking forward to this partnership that they're gonna have together but he ends that comment with and of course no one else will know that Virginia had a strong independent streak she broke social custom and traveled without a chaperone she delighted in entertaining and would become an accomplished household manager the couple became true loving partners throughout their lives but at this stage they had no idea of the tragic years ahead two years before meeting Virginia Campbell had become an unlikely travel agent when a Scottish adventurer paid $500 to join a trapping expedition Sir William Drummond Stewart of mirth Lee in Perth share a cavalry officer at the Battle of Waterloo was seeking the excitement of the West and the opportunity to come face-to-face with native tribes [Music] he's been described as Wyoming's first tourist he and Campbell would become firm friends the wealthy and somewhat eccentric Drummond Stewart brought his own artist on his travels Alfred Jacob Miller they encapsulate this incredible spiritual quality of light that radiates through these pieces that makes them come alive and I know to his audiences in the 1850s and 60s that's what they were looking for and I think helped to shape the American public's perception of what the West was that made it easy for people to think hey we're going on the Oregon Trail it's not gonna be so bad oh yeah it's not [Music] Miller's paintings have come to assume huge significance as the only contemporary visual record of how Campbell and the other trappers lived in the wilderness in the detail and this one down here looks particularly contrasting in terms of the red of his his blanket and then the arrow of article in everyone was looking east at this point to the art centers of Paris and Munich and elsewhere in Europe an artist like Miller are the first to turn their eyes westward that does show everyday life in the West at this movement I think as long as we are able to acknowledge that there is a sense of fancy and spirituality and Romanticism in his depictions of this time in place we should and can still deem them very historically important Drummond Stewart traveled with Campbell on the long track to Green River in present-day Wyoming for the 1833 rendezvous the Green River rendezvous site is probably my most favorite place in America and it's special for me because in 1833 Robert Campbell came out from st. Louis with the resupply Caravan at William Drummond Stewart said it was probably the most exciting and the last of the really great rendezvous sites here thousands and thousands of Indians from the various tribes they had three fur companies here you can imagine the scene on this enormous plane you had horse racing shooting competitions Indians firing arrows general sort of drunkenness and chaos and mayhem it must have been the most wonderful sight the rendezvous is commemorated each July in the town of Pinedale visitors come from far and wide for the parade and pageant to hear historians and enjoy events around the museum of the mountain men these are people coming out a long ways from anywhere I'd like it to the astronauts of our era the mountain men kind of opened the West and this museum mainly focuses on the rendezvous era from about 1825 to 1840 that's kind of the glamorous era of the Rocky Mountain fur trade and what Robert Campbell was a part of the romance surrounding the fair trade and the mountain man draws people from all age groups and backgrounds who want to learn more and who see themselves as part of its legacy you look in the mountains back there it's just like that's what the mountains looked like when Indians and people were first coming here saw I always loved the Native American culture I always read books about it when I was young I'm fascinated I wish I was an Indian honestly well I stopped doing this for a 15 year period because it was too lonely to be a mountain man we don't have any mountains in Denmark [Music] when he met Virginia in 1835 Campbell was ready for a change the Pierre's whole battle in 1832 had given him a real fright a year later he'd almost drowned when his boat capsized in the yellowstone river now aged 31 he was becoming tired of what he'd once seen as a bold and dashing life he was also canny enough to sense the imminent decline of the fur trade and began to look for less hazardous business opportunities the fur trade was starting to collapse by 1835 and so Robert by that same time frame was was anxious to get out he was writing letters home that were along the lines of you know if I get one good offer then I'm gonna fold this whole business so he was looking for new opportunities and was in the right place at the right time he'd made many river trips transporting hides his final one would be memorable the Platte River was famed in journals out throughout the fur trade there as a mile wide and an inch deep and people thought it wasn't navigable flat seams Tim because Robert Campbell brought the first down the river plot by bull boat and a bull boat is like a coracle it's basically animal skins on a wooden frame camber built these and brought the first on some 500 miles all the way back down the Platte River and you can see how difficult that might be but he managed it and there's a newspaper report in the st. Louis newspaper that he was the first man ever to navigate the Platte River in a bull boat mr. Campbell was not molested in any manner by the numerous fans of Indians through whose country he was compelled to pass in 1836 Campbell looked east from st. Louis rather than west traveling to Philadelphia New York and Boston buying a year's supply of trade goods at a time his fortunes would seesaw but within a few years eclipse his older brothers modest success in 1839 he was elected to the board of the Missouri State Bank he was appointed a colonel of the Missouri militia and raised troops for the war with Mexico in 1846 with his brother Hugh he secured funds to help famine victims back home in Ireland he was elected president of the bank his growing empire would cover hotels river boats and property in several states the most often quoted story about Roberts character in business is a at a fort out in the Kansas Territory a large debt was to be paid to an individual and that individual refused notes signed by the United States Treasury secretary but gladly accepted notes signed by Robert Campbell who as the president of the State Bank of Missouri had signed all of the bank notes but all their wealth and position couldn't isolate Robert and Virginia Campbell from tragedy through the illnesses endemic to the growing city well the Campbells had 13 children 10 of them died before the age of 8 most of them died of epidemic illnesses very common to st. Louis three of the children died of measles two of them died of cholera related illnesses one of scarlet fever run of diphtheria in the summer of 1847 young Virginia Campbell age 25 buried two children and gave birth to a third in a span of about ten weeks she buried a two-year-old son a few weeks later buried a one-year-old daughter and a few weeks after that gave birth to another son so Virginia would have almost constantly been wearing black through her 20s and 30s [Music] I've been to belfontaine on a number of occasions now and it's very impressive and you walk up to it and you see Robert and Virginia it's only really when you move around the side that you appreciate the sheer horror that they went through because they're listed or the ten of their 13 children that died under the age of eight we've now got two little grandsons and the prospect of of either of them being lost at a very young age is just horrific in 1854 Campbell moved his wife and remaining family to the exclusive new --scent Lewis neighborhood of Lucas place and this luxurious house a long way from the hardship of the Rockies one of the first instant louis to have running water gas lighting and flush toilets here with their staff of 10 servants they would entertain generals and presidents by this time Campbell's days and the mountains may have been behind him but such was the regard for his wilderness experience and his knowledge of and relationship with the native people that he was called to sit in the indian commission he came back and forth at peace treaty concept I think it was 1851 and the fact that they at that later stayed thought enough to have want to have him there meant that there were several of those natives thought pretty much of a Robert Campbell and that the big thing it was respect it was if you were true to your word you got respect sadly the government didn't show the Native Americans much respect they continually broke the treaties Indian lands were confiscated for settlers tribes forced into reservations people throughout the modern world don't realize that before 1492 there were approximately six million Indian people on a North American continent by the 1890s it had dwindled to less than 250,000 Campbell had risen from mountain man to multi-millionaire one of the wealthiest men in Missouri if not America in 1867 he fulfilled Virginia's dream embarking on a grand tour of Europe with their three remaining sons Hugh hazlit and James the trip started and ended in Ireland with a visit to the old home place where Robert could introduce his wife and sons to his siblings to his nieces and nephews but probably just as important to show his boys the countryside that he ran about as a young man at a time when emigrating to America usually meant a lifelong separation from home he was one of the few austere Scots who could afford to come back to his roots and the heritage that shaped him but he was always thinking of business and one of my favorite letters that he wrote back from Europe was or he visited a manufacturer of the tiny glass seed beads in Venice these tiny glass beads being made and in Venice and eventually finding their way to the Rocky Mountains to be sewn by hand by Native American women into handicrafts [Music] in October 1879 Robert Campbell died he was 75 his beloved Virginia would follow him just a few years later you know Hugh Campbell Roberts oldest surviving son had made the comment that he felt that mrs. Campbell died of a broken heart three years after Robert had passed away and and I don't think that was just romantic fluff on on the part of Hugh I think he strongly believed that given that Virginia died at such a young age there might be some basis to truth for that in due course his bachelor sons enjoyed several years traveling Europe having inherited a fortune of more than 8 million dollars his will was a gold mine earning four thousand ounces of gold a year five thousand acres of land around us and Luis and shares in two American railway companies in 1890 James died of flu in France aged 30 Hugh the brother who had taken charge of the family fortune lived until 1930 [Music] hazlit had always been of a delicate disposition became a recluse who reputedly didn't leave the Lucas place home in his last 30 years when he died Robert Campbell's line died with him but the Campbell story would have a further chapter hazel dies in 1938 and so begins the long adventure of dispersing his millions but the short of it is is hayslett had no will and the law in the state of Missouri decreed that since hade 'let haslett had no children he had no living siblings and he had no living parents that his heirs were his cousins searched for the Campbell cousins became an international sensation with over a thousand people claiming family connections Allen McFarland's family was amongst them st. Louis Circuit Court was actually convened in London in Dublin and OMA and I believe in Belfast and the British newspapers cover it quite intriguingly as the first time in american court was ever convened in the UK here in Osia a lot of people got a fearful amount of money the money came back to them basically after the Second World War when many men were coming back to Northern Ireland to take up employment getting somewhere in the region of 2 pound 10 shillings a week to discover that they were sharing some of Robert Campbell's money and one share of that was ten thousand three hundred pound and it helped to buy farms it helped to send children to university the best example we have one lady related to the Campbell family she and her husband were going to get about a thousand pound they didn't get it all at once they got it in three tranches and for each chance of about 350 pounds they bought a small farm in Donegal and the last chance of money they got was in 1947 two three years ago the family sold it back to the Donegal Council for two million euro that's the luck of the Campbell fortune in the end a hundred and sixty-one people were find to be legitimate heirs Alan McFarland's grandfather received six thousand Pines from the fortune [Music] Allen's journey into the world of Robert Campbell has revealed an ancestor with a legacy on both sides of the Atlantic a great-great great-great uncle of whom he's justifiably proud I've discovered a man who was genuinely an Ulster Scot of honesty and integrity who was trusted and respected by both settlers and Native Americans and I'm keen that he's brought out of the shadows of American history and recognized for what he was a genuine Rocky Mountain pioneer and one of the small band of men who opened up the American West we have a film for you later on tonight guess who's coming to dinner Texas back to 1967 when a young white woman alliance's her engagement to a black doctor what exactly will her parents say sidney poitier stars at five past midnight

Channel: Forged In Ulster

Views: 904,022

Rating: 4.76543 out of 5

Keywords: ulster scots, scots irish, scotch irish, ulster, scottish, irish, british, mountain man, fur trapper, banker, ulsterman, rich, influential, businessman, rockies, frontiersman, trappers, survivalists, mountaineers, american, history, fur trade, rendezvous

Id: xf5Z32ypKHY

Length: 59min 1sec (3541 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 17 2018