Charles Larpenteur
| Charles Eugene Larpenteur | |
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| Born |
May 8, 1803 Fontainebleau, France |
| Died | November 15, 1872 (aged 69) Little Sioux, Iowa |
| Residence | Little Sioux, Iowa |
| Nationality | French |
| Citizenship | American |
| Occupation | Fur trader |
| Known for | His memoir, Forty Years a Fur Trader |
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Charles Larpenteur, born 1803, died 1872, was an American fur trader, whose memoir and diary frequently have been used as a source to fur trade history.
Larpenteur was the son of a Bonapartiste gentleman who left France in disgust after the Bourbon restoration, and settled in Baltimore with his family. As a young adult Larpenteur moved to St. Louis. In 1833 he took employment as a common engagé with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The outfit under Robert Campbell first moved overland, with pack train and cattle, to the Green River rendezvous. After having completed its business there, the outfit continued to the mouth of the Yellowstone River, where it built Fort William, in close vicinity to the competing American Fur Company's already standing Fort Union.William Sublette, almost as soon as the post was finished, sold Fort William to the American Fur Company; Larpenteur becoming a clerk at Fort Union under Kenneth McKenzie. He served the company and its successor (Bernard Pratte & Company, and Pierre Chouteau, Jr. & Company) for many years, mostly at Fort Union. During that period, Larpenteur built Fort Alexander, a trading post for the Crows on the Yellowstone, after having set fire to the deserted Fort Van Buren, in the vicinity.
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Wikipedia