Ceran St. Vrain, born Ceran de Hault de Lassus de Saint-Vrain (May 5, 1802 – October 28, 1870), was the son of a French aristocrat who immigrated to the

Spanish Louisiana Spanish Louisiana ( es, link=no, la Luisiana) was a governorate and administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1762 to 1801 that consisted of a vast territory in the center of North America encompassing the western basin of t ...

in the late 18th century; his mother was from St. Louis, where he was born. To gain the ability to trade, in 1831 he became a naturalized Mexican citizen in what is now the state of

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

. He formed a partnership with American traders

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, George and

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

Bent; together they established the trading post of

Bent's Fort Bent's Old Fort is an 1833 fort located in Otero County in southeastern Colorado, United States. A company owned by Charles Bent and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the fort to trade with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Plains Indians and ...

. It was the only privately held fort in the West. In addition to his trading post business, St. Vrain formed a business partnership with Cornelio Vigil. In 1843 the two men petitioned for and received a land grant of approximately located in what is now southeastern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

. However, their plans for development of the area were halted due to the onset of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the ...

, by which the United States acquired the Southwest and California. Following the creation of the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico in 1847, St. Vrain organized a group of volunteers who fought alongside the US Army during the

Taos Revolt The Taos Revolt was a populist insurrection in January 1847 by Hispano and Pueblo allies against the United States' occupation of present-day northern New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. Provisional governor Charles Bent and severa ...

. After the deaths of Charles and George Bent, William Bent and St. Vrain dissolved their partnership. St. Vrain settled in Mora,

New Mexico Territory The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of '' Nuevo México'' becomin ...

. There he owned saw and flourmills and was a supplier to the U.S. Army garrison at the nearby Fort Union.

Early life

Ceran St. Vrain was the son of a French aristocrat who came to the United States in the late 18th century to escape the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. His father was Jacques Marcellin Ceran de Hault de Lassus Saint-Vrain (1770-1818), the third son of Pierre de Luzière. Jacques was previously an officer in the French navy. Once in

, he becomes commander of the Spanish King's galiot ''La Flecha'' – the Arrow – and captain of militia. His mother was Marie Félicité Chauvet Dubreuil of St. Louis, Missouri, which had a predominately French population. His parents were married on April 30, 1796; they had a large family. One of Ceran's brothers was Felix St. Vrain. He became a US Indian agent and was killed in 1832 by the Sauk tribe, in what came to be known as the St. Vrain Massacre, during the

Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", cross ...

. The family settled near St. Louis, Missouri, where Ceran was born on May 5, 1802. Jacques St. Vrain died insolvent in 1818. He had never recovered from the loss of his brewery, which burned down in 1813. After his father's death, Ceran became a clerk with Bernard Pratte and Company, a trading firm located in St Louis.

Into the fur trade and Bent, St. Vrain & Company

Eager for adventure, in 1824 Ceran St. Vrain persuaded Bernard Pratte to support a trading venture to

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...

, part of newly independent Mexico. After establishing a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

in Taos, St. Vrain travelled between Missouri and New Mexico for several years, including as far south as the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...

(now in Southwest

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. He also trapped near the

North Platte River The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately long, counting its many curves.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 21, 2011 In a ...

. In 1830 St. Vrain was part of a caravan of traders on their way to Taos who were intercepted near the

Canadian River The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .José Antonio Vizcarra (sometimes referred to as "Viscarra"). According to Ceran St. Vrain, "The object in coming out so fare to meet us was to prevent Smuggling and it had the desired effeck." In 1831, when he was living in Taos, St. Vrain became a naturalized Mexican citizen; it enable him to avoid the restrictions placed on American traders in what was then Mexican territory. He soon afterward formed a partnership with American trader William Bent. The new company was known as Bent, St. Vrain & Company; the company's trading area covered much of Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado. They established company trading posts in Santa Fe and

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos, Missouri, a city in Cole County, Missouri, United States * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colo ...

, where their wagon trains made deliveries of goods shipped from

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

and Westport,

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. They traded cloth, glass, hardware, and tobacco for silver, furs, horses, and

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two po ...

s. The Bent-St. Vrain Company built

, an elaborate

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...

fort on the eastern Colorado plains, along the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, ...

. Bent's Fort was the only privately owned fortification in the west. It became a premier trading center and rendezvous for fur trappers. Bent's Fort has been restored and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as a National Historic Site. Ceran St. Vrain also helped establish what is now called Old Fort Saint Vrain, along the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West. It ...

Mexican–American War and Taos Revolt

During the

, Ceran St. Vrain organized a volunteer force to support the U.S. re-taking of Taos, during the

. 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 Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

and

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

rebels, who took refuge in a thick-walled adobe church in

Taos Pueblo Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos-speaking (Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. The pueblos are considered to be one of the oldest ...

. During the

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 insurge ...

, Ceran St. Vrain's "Emergency Brigade" positioned themselves between the church and the mountains. They cut off rebel forces attempting to escape the federal troops' artillery fire 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. Ceran St. Vrain acted as the translator in the following military trial of numerous captives taken at Taos. Fifteen men were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. They were executed in April 1847.

Grist mill and newspaper

In 1855, Ceran St. Vrain settled in Mora County, where he built a

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...

, St. Vrain's Mill. He supplied flour to Fort Union in Mora Valley, north of

Las Vegas, New Mexico Las Vegas is a city in and the county seat of San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities (one a city and the other a town), both were named Las Vegas—West Las Vegas ("Old Town") and East Las Vegas ("New Town ...

, and to

Fort Garland Fort Garland (1858–1883), Colorado, United States, was designed to house two companies of soldiers to protect settlers in the San Luis Valley, then in the Territory of New Mexico. It was named for General John Garland, commander of the Military ...

in southwestern

. He also began publishing one of Northern New Mexico's first English-language newspapers, the '' Santa Fe Gazette''.

Personal life

Ceran St. Vrain had at least 6 children; historians disagree on whether Ceran was legally married to all the mothers of his children. He may have taken "country wives" among indigenous women in New Mexico; this was typical of many fur traders. On October 28, 1870, Ceran St. Vrain died at the home of his son Vincente in Mora. More than 2,000 people attended his funeral, which included the U.S. Army garrison from Fort Union. St. Vrain was buried in what is now named St. Vrain Cemetery in Mora.

Namesakes

St. Vrain Canyon, near

Lyons, Colorado The Town of Lyons is a Statutory Town in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 2033 at the 2010 United States Census, up from 1585 at the 2000 United States Census. Lyons is located at the confluence of North St. Vr ...

, and St. Vrain Creek, which flows through into the

, and St. Vrain School district in Colorado are named after him. A street in central

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

, Colorado, St. Vrain St., is also named after him.

Notes

External links

The Taos Grist Mill of Ceran St. Vrain
Taos County Historical Society {{DEFAULTSORT:St. Vrain, Ceran 1802 births 1870 deaths American people of French descent History of Mora County, New Mexico History of Taos, New Mexico Businesspeople from St. Louis People of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico People from Taos County, New Mexico People from Mora, New Mexico People of the Taos Revolt American people of the Mexican–American War 19th-century American businesspeople