Through their strength, character and a series of unstoppable circumstances; two women would become driving forces not only in their families, but also in the fur trading business along the Upper Missouri River.
Although they were born five generations apart and would never meet, both were around 20-years-old when their fates were sealed. Marie Therese Bourgeois, a French girl from New Orleans, who would help found what is now St. Louis and her great-great granddaughter; Mary Sarpy (White Woman) whose life would be lived as strong force in the Sans Arc band of the Teton Sioux in what is now South Dakota, would become the matriarchs of their families. It was the Lewis and Clark expedition and a series of strange twists and turns, that would make their families not only strong, but also make them a part of the history that was to play itself out not only in the cities of St. Louis and New Orleans, but on the vast prairies that surround the Upper Missouri River.
In some ways the lives of Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau and Mary Sarpy (White Woman) may sound like something a modern day romance writer might have created, but the two women were real and their combined inner strengths and innate ability to make their way in what was considered ‘a man’s world,’ made them both a part of the history of fur trade along the Upper Missouri River.
Marie Therese Bourgeois was born in New Orleans in 1733, and at the age of 15; Marie left a convent to marry a New Orleans tavern keeper, Rene Auguste Chouteau in 1748. By September 1749, Marie Chouteau had her first child, a son named Rene (Auguste). By 1753 Marie Chouteau’s husband had abandoned both his wife and young son and returned to France.
It was now up to the 20-year-old Marie to find a way for both her and her son to survive. Salvation for the pair came in the form of a handsome, well educated Frenchman, Pierre De Laclede Liguest. He was newly arrived in New Orleans in 1755, prepared to use his inheritance to make his fortune in the new world. Instead his entrance into the life of Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau would begin a chain of events that would found the city of Saint Louis and help change the fates of not only Lewis and Clark, but of Mary Sarpy (White Woman) who had not yet been born in the upper Missouri River region.
Since Marie was a deserted wife, she and Pierre soon found themselves in social no man’s land. She could not divorce or remarry due to the strict Roman Catholic doctrine, which forbade both. The Catholic society in New Orleans fully agreed with the rules set forth by the church and looked, at least in the beginning, at Marie and Pierre as sinners. In spite of the early condemnation, the couple lived together as though they were married and bore four children together. Since Marie could not divorce, all of the children born of this union carried the last name of Chouteau rather than their real father de Laclede Liguest.
As their fortunes grew and their children married into families with good names, the extended Chouteau family also became a powerful force in the area. Over time, the couple became well respected despite the fact Marie and Pierre had never been able to legally marry.
Marie was the first white woman to live on the west bank of the Mississippi River when she moved to the home Laclede had built for her in the town he had founded, St. Louis. He soon became recognized as one of the leaders of the business community of St. Louis and his Stepson Auguste (Rene) Chouteau and his own son Pierre Chouteau became well established in the fur trade. After Laclede’s death in 1778, Madam Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau and her children continued to be driving force in the economy of St. Louis. By the time of her death in 1814 she had become a wealthy woman in her own right and accumulated vast real estate holdings and numerous slaves.
As the Chouteau family prospered in various business concerns, they began marrying and producing children of their own. The Chouteau family made sure that their daughters married well, to financially well established older men. That way they were assured that no daughter would end up as Madam Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau once had.
Marie Pelagie Chouteau, second daughter of Pierre and Marie, married Sylvester Labbadie family and produced nine children. Marie Pelagie Chouteau Labbadie and her husband became successful in their own right as they involved themselves in business enterprises with her brothers August and Pierre Chouteau.
It was through these dealings that their daughter Marie Pelagie Labbadie met and married Gregoire Berald Sarpy, a partner in the business enterprises with the Chouteau’s who had come from France to build his own fortunes. A son born to this union would later tie the life of Mary Sarpy (White Woman) and future generations to both the Chouteau’s and the Lewis and Clark expedition; assuring their place in history
When Lewis and Clark were waiting for the winter to end and their soon to be famous expedition to begin, they found themselves very unwelcome in the St. Louis area. Many of the prominent citizens in the area and that of New Orleans had made their fortunes off trading with various Indian tribes along the upper Missouri River. They had worked with both the French and Spanish and the agreements they had made with those governments had made them handsomely wealthy. The thought of having the Americans coming in as interlopers and possibly ruining the empires they had built upon the fur trade prompted them close their doors to the explorers as they camped near St. Louis. However; one notable exception to this was the Chouteau family.
Wisely, August and Pierre were able to see that the expansion of the lands the Americans had gained in the Louisiana Purchase could bring even more riches to them if they cooperated and got in on the ground floor. In the winter of 1803-04 as the Lewis and Clark expedition awaited their spring departure, Lewis and Clark soon became welcome guests in the Chouteau households, which were considered to be the unofficial home for the pair.
As the spring of 1804 broke, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition left the Chouteau households to start their journey. A chain of events also began that would forever change the landscape of two families and show the strength and mettle of Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau’s great-great granddaughter Mary Sarpy (White Woman). The destiny of a whole new dynasty had begun.
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