South Dakota's Early Fur Trade History

South Dakota's early fur traders, those that engaged in the traffic directly with the Indians, were men of no ordinary mold. In many instances they were heroes, at all times resolute, self-reliant, and often self-sacrificing. As a rule no obstacle discouraged them, and they were appalled by no threatened calamity.

In 1915, George Washington Kingsbury published "South Dakota: Its History and Its People" which included several chapters providing a short 22-page overview of South Dakota's fur trade history. It is these chapters which have republished here for the convenience of the interested reader.

Contents:

THE FUR TRADE
FUR TRADE THE PIONEER INDUSTRY OF NORTH AMERICA
JOHN JACOB ASTOR AND HIS ENTERPRISES
THE CHOTEAUS, LISA AND OTHERS
FORT PIERRE CHOTEAU
ASTOR EXPEDITIONS BY SEA AND LAND
WASHINGTON HUNT'S PERILOUS AND TRAGIC JOURNEY
THE WAR OF 1812
ASTOR SELLS TO CHOTEAU.
THE FUR TRADE AND THE FIRST STEAMBOAT
FORT PIERRE CHOTEAU
FORT VERMILLION AND BENTON
INTRODUCING THE STEAMBOAT, A MAGKINAW BOAT; AND THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE UPPER MISSOURI
MAGNITUDE OF THE FUR TRADE
THE TRADERS

About the author:

George Washington Kingsbury (1837-1925) was born at Lee, Oneida county, New York, December 16, 1837. At the age of four his parents removed with him to Utica, N. Y., where he got a scanty education, and fitted himself for a civil engineer.

He assisted in the survey of the Black River and Utica railroad; then he went to Wisconsin, in 1856, and helped to survey the Watertown, Madison and Prairie du Chien railroad. When this work, had been completed he went to St. Louis and took up the printers' trade which he had learned while a boy. From there he went to Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1858, where he worked in a job printing office for a few months and then accepted a job as editor of a paper at Junction City, which he ran for three years.

During this period he formed the acquaintance of Mr. Trask with whom he came to Dakota Territory in 1862. In 1863, he was elected to the territorial legislature from Yankton, and served four years. He was appointed collector of internal revenue in 1890; was elected to the state senate in 1894, and in 1898 Governor Lee appointed him a member of the state board of charities and corrections.

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