- #201
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From "KIT CARSON DAYS (1809-1868)" by Col Christopher Carson c1914 A C McClurg & Co, Chicago:
"The southwest spelled Sante Fe that far Mexican metropolis of the Spanish settlements Pike had reported upon it; in 1806 he had found there one James Purcell(Pursley) an American from Kentucky alreadt domiciled".
In 1795, Capt Louis Villemont on a Mission of the Court of Spain, discovered gold in a stream in what is today's Fairplay, Colorado.
In 1816, Auguste Chouteau, Manuel Lisa, Sylvestre Labadie, Moses Austin, Rufus Easton (Territorial Judge appointed by Thomas Jefferson), and J B C Lucas (longtime friend of Benjamin Franklin and had connection to Thomas Jefferson) formed THE BANK OF ST LOUIS, which accepted furs as collateral for loans to outfit expeditions and fur trappers.
Capt George Hancock Kennerly, related to James Beverly Risqué who had a duel with Thomas Beale in Fincastle, Virginia over Risque' niece, Julia Hancock, did business with this bank after starting a mercantile business in St Louis, 1817.
Julia Hancock stayed with her Kennerly uncles in St Louis before marrying William Clark, of Lewis & Clark.
Thanks, ECS. I've been searching online for a map or notes from the Villemont Expedition but I haven't had any luck yet. If I find anything, I'll post it.