Ceran St. Vrain
Encyclopedia
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
, where he and his partner William Bent
William Bent
William Wells Bent was a frontier trapper, trader, and rancher in the American West who mediated among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United States. With his brothers, Bent established a trade business along the Santa Fe Trail. In the early 1830s Bent built an...
established the trading post of Bent's Fort. St. Vrain acted as an ally of the new United States territorial governor, Charles Bent
Charles Bent
Charles Bent was appointed as the first Governor of the newly acquired New Mexico Territory by Governor Stephen Watts Kearny in September 1846....
, appointed during the Mexican-American War, by raising a force of volunteers and participating with the US Army in suppressing the Taos Revolt
Taos Revolt
The Taos Revolt was a popular insurrection in January 1847 by Mexicans and Pueblo allies against the United States' occupation of present-day northern New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. In two short campaigns, United States troops and militia crushed the rebellion of the Mexicans and...
. Afterward, he served as a translator in the US military's trial of numerous Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
men who had been part of the revolt. Later St. Vrain settled in Mora, New Mexico
Mora, New Mexico
Mora or Santa Gertrudis de lo de Mora is an unincorporated community in, and the county seat of, Mora County, New Mexico, United States. It is located about half way between Las Vegas, New Mexico and Taos on Highway 518 at an altitude of 7,180 feet...
, where he had a mill and supplied the US Army.
Early life and education
Ceran St. Vrain was the son of FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
aristocrats who came to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the late 18th century during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. They settled near St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, where he was born on May 5, 1802. His parents arranged for him to be educated by tutors and in a private school.
Career
With family capital, St. Vrain became established as a fur trader near TaosTaos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. He also trapped near the North Platte River
North Platte River
The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately long counting its many curves, It travels about distance. Its course lies in the U.S...
in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
.
In a partnership with William Bent
William Bent
William Wells Bent was a frontier trapper, trader, and rancher in the American West who mediated among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United States. With his brothers, Bent established a trade business along the Santa Fe Trail. In the early 1830s Bent built an...
, St. Vrain formed the enterprise "Bent, St. Vrain & Company". The company's Mexican trade grew rapidly in company stores in Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
and Taos
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
, then a part of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
., where their wagon trains made deliveries of goods shipped from Independence
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
and Westport
Westport, Kansas City
Westport is a historic neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Originally its own town, it was annexed by Kansas City in 1897. Today, it is one of Kansas City's main entertainment districts.-Background:...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
. They traded cloth, glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
, hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....
, and tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
for silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
s, horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s, and mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s.
The Bent-St. Vrain Company built Bent's Fort, an elaborate adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
fort, on the eastern Colorado plains along the Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
. Bent's Fort was the only privately owned fortification in the west. It became a premier trading center and rendezvous point for fur trappers. Bent's Fort has been restored and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as a National Historic Site
National Historic Sites (United States)
National Historic Sites are protected areas of national historic significance in the United States. A National Historic Site usually contains a single historical feature directly associated with its subject...
. St. Vrain also helped establish what is now called Old Fort Saint Vrain
Fort Saint Vrain
Fort Saint Vrain was an 1837 fur trading post built by the Bent, St. Vrain Company, and located at the confluence of Saint Vrain Creek and the South Platte River, about 20 miles east of the Rocky Mountains in the unorganized territory of the United States. This area later became part od the State...
along the South Platte River
South Platte River
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska...
.
During the Taos Revolt
Taos Revolt
The Taos Revolt was a popular insurrection in January 1847 by Mexicans and Pueblo allies against the United States' occupation of present-day northern New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. In two short campaigns, United States troops and militia crushed the rebellion of the Mexicans and...
, St. Vrain organized a volunteer force to support the U.S. re-taking of Taos during the Mexican-American War. Joining more than 300 U.S. troops in Santa Fe, St. Vrain's 65 men set off for Taos. Along the way, they forced the retreat of some 1,500 Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
rebels, who took refuge in a thick-walled adobe church in Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico, USA...
.
During the Siege of Pueblo de Taos
Siege of Pueblo de Taos
The Siege of Pueblo de Taos was the final battle during the main phase of the Taos Revolt, an insurrection against the United States during the Mexican-American War. It was also the final major engagement between American forces and insurgent forces in New Mexico during the war...
, St. Vrain's "Emergency Brigade" positioned themselves between the church and the mountains. They cut off rebel forces' attempting to escape the federal troops' cannon firings and frontal assault. The mounted volunteers reportedly raided the rebels and killed a total of 51 Mexicans and Taos Indians in the fierce, close-quarter fighting that followed. St. Vrain's life was saved by one of his volunteers, a New Mexican named Manuel Chaves
Manuel Antonio Chaves
Manuel Antonio Chaves or Chávez , known as El Leoncito , was a soldier in the Mexican Army and then became a rancher who lived in New Mexico. His life was full of incident, and his courage and marksmanship became literally legendary in his own time...
. St. Vrain acted as the translator in the following military trial of numerous captives taken at Taos. Fifteen men were convicted and sentenced to death for treason. They were executed in April 1847.
In 1855, St. Vrain settled in Mora County, New Mexico
Mora County, New Mexico
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*70.9% White*0.7% Black*1.3% Native American*0.3% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.3% Two or more races*23.5% Other races*81.0% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, where he built a flour mill. He supplied flour to Fort Union
Fort Union National Monument
Fort Union National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service located north of Watrous, Mora County, New Mexico, USA. The national monument was founded on June 28, 1954....
north of Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas is a city in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities both named Las Vegas, west Las Vegas and east Las Vegas , divided by the Gallinas River, retain distinct characters and separate, rival school districts. The population was 14,565 at the 2000...
, and Fort Garland
Fort Garland
Fort Garland , Colorado, USA, was designed to house two companies of soldiers to protect settlers in the San Luis Valley, which was the Territory of New Mexico...
in southwestern Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. He also began publishing the Santa Fe Gazette newspaper.
After Ceran St. Vrain's death on October 28, 1870, more than 2,000 people attended his funeral. These included the garrison from Fort Union. St. Vrain was buried in Mora
Mora, New Mexico
Mora or Santa Gertrudis de lo de Mora is an unincorporated community in, and the county seat of, Mora County, New Mexico, United States. It is located about half way between Las Vegas, New Mexico and Taos on Highway 518 at an altitude of 7,180 feet...
with full military honors.