Fontenelle's Post
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Fontenelle's Post was established by the American Fur Company near Bellevue, Nebraska in 1806. This was first notable settlement in Nebraska by American settlers. The Post was also an early home of Moses Merrill, who founded the first mission in Nebraska Territory in 1855.
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[edit] History
Alternatively called Fontenelle's Post or Sarpy's Point on the west bank of the Missouri River across from present-day Mills County, Iowa which was known as Point aux Poules, Point of the Pulls, Pull Point, Nebraska Post Office, Council Bluffs Post Office, and Traders Point. The Post was located down the Missouri River from Council Point, located in present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa. The post was named after an Omaha chief named Logan Fontenelle, who was the son of an Omaha woman and Lucien Fontenelle, a Frenchman and noted fur trader from New Orleans. Logan was an interpreter for the United States Government from 1840 to l853 at the Post.[1]
Fontenelle's Post absorbed the operations of Cabanne's Trading Post in 1836.
Fontenelle's Post became popularly known as Sarpy's Point by 1846, named after Colonel Peter Sarpy who ran the American Fur Company post there. Also located there was Sarpy's Ferry, an early crossing for the Oregon Trail.
In 1849 a post office was established across the river and named "Nebraska." It was moved to Kanesville, Iowa in 1850, and then reopened in 1852 just south of Sarpy's Point and named Trader’s Point.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Historic image of Fontenelle's Post.
- Peter Sarpy Nebraska Studies website
[edit] References
- ^ (n.d.) Logan Fontenelle Nebraska Department of Education.
- ^ (n.d.) [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~raymondfamily/SaintsMissouri1846.html Council Bluffs: 1846-1852.
- Trottman, Alan C. "Lucien Fontenelle", featured in "Trappers of the Far West", Leroy R. Hafen, editor. 1972, Arthur H. Clark Company, reprint University of Nebraska Press, October 1983. ISBN 0-8032-7218-9
