Two Bourgeois or Head Traders of the Fort

Two Bourgeois or Head Traders of the Fort. Fort Clark State Historic Site. , James Kipp , , In the twilight of his years, a "Canadian of German descent," James Kipp, (1788-1880_ was to be remembered for both his AMF fort-building experiences and his vast knowledge of the Upper Missouri country and its people. Kipp is credited with the construction of Fort Clark along with its upriver sister-post Fort Union. Of equal importance to AMF interests was his renowned command of the Mandan language-a skill that served him and numerous others well. In November 1933 after his party's arrival at Fort Clark, Prince Maximilian's account noted the following about James Kipp: , We found there, besides Mr. Kipp the director, and his family, two interpreters, Belhumeur for the Mandan language....and (he) did not speak the Mandan language as well as Mr. Kipp. , During his forty-year tenure on the Missouri River, Kipp became a fixture in the fur trade. The parade of artists, explorers, and scientists that visited Fort Clark and its sister Missouri River establishments frequently mentioned Kipp's role in business and other matters. Rudolph Friederich Kurz, the noted Swiss artist, recorded in his journal of July 15, 1851, at Fort Berthold: , Mr. Kipp has installed me today as clerk. I was charged with the task of compiling, according to his pronunciation, a dictionary of the Mandan dialect for Colonel Mitchell. , Francis A. Chardon , The life of the bourgeois centered on managing the affairs and activities of the trading establishment, as Kurz reported in his journal of November 22, 1851. , A bourgeois or head clerk is stationed at every post....The bourgeois keeps his own accounts....The less a bourgeois has to pay for the upkeep of his fort, in salaries for employees, and for skins and furs, the greater will be his profit and that of his agents.... , The life of Francis Chardon mirrored that of countless other mid-level fur trade personnel of French extraction of the early nineteenth century. He entered the Lower Missouri trade by 1820, and served downriver among the Osages. As was the "custom of the country," Chardon had Native American wives, among them Tchon-su-mons-ka (Sandy Bar), whose portrait artist George Catlin painted in 1832 on the Upper Missouri. , Chardon's journal at Fort Clark, chronicling daily life at the post between 1834 and 1839, stands out as one of the rare glimpses in fur-trade history. He is buried in an unmarked grave at Fort Pierre Choteau.