Robert Campbell (frontiersman)
| Robert Campbell | |
|---|---|
Photograph of Robert Campbell circa 1860
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| Born |
February 12, 1804 County Tyrone, Ireland |
| Died |
October 16, 1879 (aged 75) St. Louis, Missouri, US |
| Known for | Exploration of Rocky Mountains, Head of two Missouri Banks, Owner of Steamboats, Real Estate Mogul in St. Louis, Missouri and Kansas City, Missouri |
| Website | Campbell House Museum Website |
For a list of other individuals by the same name, see .
Robert Campbell (February 12, 1804 – October 16, 1879) was an Irish immigrant who became an American frontiersman, fur trader and businessman. His St. Louis home is now preserved as a museum; the Campbell House Museum.
Robert Campbell was born on February 12, 1804, in his family’s home, Aughalane (pronounced “Ochalane”). The house was built by Hugh Campbell in 1786 near Plumbridge, County Tyrone, Ireland. Hugh placed a pair of stone plaques above the door, inscribing one with his name and the other with the coat of arms of the Duke of Argyll, indicating kinship with the Campbells in Scotland. Aughalane is today preserved by the Ulster American Folk Park in Castletown, County Tyrone.
Campbell was the youngest child of his father's second wife, and therefore was due to inherit next to nothing. This prompted him to follow his older brother Hugh to America, arriving in Philadelphia on June 27, 1822. How he spent his first year is largely unknown, but a meeting with John O’Fallon in 1823 offered potential. Like Robert, O’Fallon was an immigrant from County Tyrone who now lived in St. Louis, and was employed as a sutler at Council Bluffs. Robert was offered the position of assistant clerk, working the winter at Bellevue on the Missouri River (near present-day Omaha, Nebraska). Robert, who had lung issues as a child, suffered greatly through the winter, and he moved to O’Fallon’s St. Louis store. O’Fallon introduced him to Doctor Bernard Farrar, who advised Robert, “your symptoms are consumptive and I advise you to go to the Rocky Mountains. I have before sent two or three young men there in your condition, and they came back restored to health and healthy as bucks.”
Campbell joined fur trader Jedediah S. Smith in an expedition leaving St. Louis for the Rocky Mountains on November 1, 1825. With the financial backing of William H. Ashley and his Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Smith assembled a group of sixty men, including experienced explorers and traders Hiram Scott, Jim Beckwourth, Moses Harris, and Louis Vasquez. After becoming aware of Campbell's skills and education, Smith asked him to act as clerk for the expedition.
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