Charles Autobees (1812–1882), whose last name was also spelled Urtebise and Ortivis, was a fur trader and pioneer in the

American Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

. He was the founder of Autobees, Colorado.

Early life

Charles Autobees was born in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in 1812 to Francis Autobees and Sarah T. Tate. Francis was French-Canadian and may have had Native American heritage as well. After Francis drowned in the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

while logging, Sarah married Bartholomew Tobin, who was living in St. Louis. Sarah and Bartholomew had another son, Thomas Tate Tobin.

Fur trader

By the age of 16, Autobees was a fur trader based in St. Louis. Many of his activities are unclear, but he was associated with many famous figures of the old west including

Jim Bridger James Felix "Jim" Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old ...

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and ...

, Juan Antonio Laforet, Geminien P. Beauvais, James Bordeaux, Charles Nadeau, Chat Dubray, Jean Baptiste Charlefou, Tom Tobin, A. G. Boone,

Carlos Beaubien Charles H. Beaubien (October 22, 1800 – February 6, 1864), also known as Alexis Beaubien, Don Carlos Beaubien and Charles Trotier, was a Canadian-born American fur trader who was one of two investors who owned of northeastern New Mexico and sou ...

, Joseph Barnoy and James P. Beckwourth. In the early 1830s, he was a part of the

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States. During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British ...

and may have taken part in a battle with the

Blackfeet The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Mon ...

on Salmon River. This was likely one of the many battles described in Thomas D. Bonner's ''Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth''. He may also have been involved in the July 1832 battle known as the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole. There are conflicting accounts for many parts of Autobees' life. Autobees' son claimed that his father took a Flathead woman for a partner and had a daughter named Eliza with her. In another account, Autobees spent twenty years with an

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

woman named Sycamore. In 1834, Autobees left the American Fur Company and moved to Fort Hall on the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

where he worked for Nathaniel Wyeth and Robert Evans. In 1835, Autobees joined a party of

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

trappers. In the spring of that year, his party had another battle with Blackfeet.

Taos

In 1836, Charles settled in

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 ...

, taking a job with flour mill and distillery operator, Simeon Turley. Autobees became Turley's traveling salesman. He customarily loaded two 10-gallon barrels of whiskey on each

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 ...

of a mule train and proceeded north from Taos through the

San Luis Valley The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It c ...

, crossed the

Sangre de Cristo Mountains The Sangre de Cristo Mountains ( Spanish for " Blood of Christ") are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States. The mountains run from Poncha Pass in South- ...

La Veta Pass La Veta Pass is the name associated with two nearby mountain passes in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of south central Colorado in the United States, both lying on the boundary between Costilla and Huerfano counties. Old La Veta Pass (officially ...

, and descended to the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, a ...

. He traded the whiskey for buffalo robes and beaver pelts in the

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

and Platte river valleys, and sent the robes and pelts by wagon train to Missouri for them to be sold. Autobees took another woman as a housekeeper, Serafina Avila, who had two more sons, Mariano in 1837 and Jose Tomas, known as Tom, in 1842. Serafina remained with Tom until her death in the 1870s. Autobees remained with and worked for Turley for eleven years. During that period, Autobees moved around, spending the winter of 1841-1842 and part of the winter of 1842-1843 at Fort Lancaster. He also accompanied Turley's trade wagons to New Mexico in the early 1840s. On January 20, 1847, Turley and his operation was attacked by Taos area Indians and Mexicans. Tom Tobin managed to escape and Autobee was on a mule train travelling to Santa Fe, but Turley died with many of his men. In 1847, Autobee and Tobin were living and farming on the St. Charles River south of

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

. In 1849, Autobees, Asa Estes, Bill Williams and others were employed as guides and spies by Lieutenant J. H. Whittlesey in an attack on the Utes in reparation for perceived injuries of settlers in along the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

Autobees settlement

In 1853, Richens Lacy Wootton, Levin Mitchell, William Kroenig, and Autobees built the Huerfano village ( Autobees, Colorado) on the south side of the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United ...

near the mouth of the

Huerfano River Huerfano River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in Pueblo and Huerfano counties in Colorado, United States.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed March 31, 2011 Descr ...

.Lecompte 1980, p233

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Autobees, Charles 1812 births 1882 deaths Mountain men American fur traders People from Colorado People of the New Mexico Territory People of pre-statehood New Mexico American folklore People of the Taos Revolt American people of the Mexican–American War