This oil painting of Robert Stuart by an unknown artist is through the courtesy of Jane Stuart Vander Poel, great-great granddaughter of Robert Stuart.
On June 29th 1812, Robert Stuart, Benjamin Jones, François LeClerc, André Vallé, John Day, Ramsay Crooks, and Robert McClellan left Astoria for St. Louis with two other Astorian parties. Crooks and McClellan had given up their partnership shares in the Pacific Fur Company, and wished to return to St. Louis. As the Stuart party approached the Willamette River, John Day become incoherent. Robert Stuart realized it would be impossible to keep Day with the St. Louis party. John Day was placed under the care of several Wapato Indians and sent back to Astoria.
The Robert Stuart party left the two other parties of Astorians at the mouth of the Walla Walla River. After trading for ten horses, Robert Stuart and five men proceeded over the Blue Mountains to the Grande Ronde Valley. In the area where the Owyhee River emptied into Snake River, a Shoshone Indian approached the party. The Shoshone told Robert Stuart he had guided Wilson Hunt and the Overland Astorians over Teton Pass to Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. The Indian told Stuart there was an easier route through the mountains than Hunt had used.
I without lofs of time offered him a Pistol a Blanket of Blue Cloth a looking glafs and a little Powder and Ball if he would guide us to the other side, which he immediately accepted….
Two days later the Indian disappeared with Stuart’s riding horse.
Above Salmon Falls on the Snake River, Robert Stuart encountered John Hoback, Edward Robinson, Jacob Rezner, and Joseph Miller. After being left at Fort Henry by Hunt, these four and Martin Cass had trapped along the Idaho-Utah border and a good portion of Wyoming. Joseph Miller told Stuart the Arapahoe had robbed them twice, and Cass had abandoned them with the last of their horses. Living on what fish they could catch, the destitute trappers were trying to reach Astoria.
Robert Stuart’s party arrived at Hunt’s caches near Caldron Linn four days later. Six of the caches had been plundered. Stuart opened the three remaining caches and outfitted Hoback, Rezner, and Robinson to trap the area, until John Reed arrived to retrieve the cached goods. Miller stayed with the Stuart party.
Robert Stuart – Jane Vander Poel
