THE BUILDER NOVEMBER 1925

Brother Colonel Ceran St. Vrain: A Study of the Life of a Masonic
Pioneer of the Southwest

By BRO. F. T. CHEETHAM, New Mexico

AS noted in the introduction to one of his former contributions to
The Builder, Bro. Cheetham has in hand the preparation of a history
of the Southwest to show the influence of Freemasonry in the
development of that great American empire. This study of Bro. St.
Vrain will serve as a chapter in that work. Its interest will be
enhanced if it is read in conjunction with Bro. Cheetham's previous
essays: "Kit Carson - A Mason of the Frontier," The Builder,
December, 1922, page 366- and "Governor Bent, a Masonic Martyr of
New Mexico," The Builder, December, 1923, page 358. Bro. Cheetham,
who may be addressed at Taos, New Mexico, will appreciate receiving
any additional Masonic data bearing on his studies.

WHILE we inherited from the English our language and that great
system of jurisprudence, known as the common law, we are largely
indebted to the French for our liberty. They gave lavishly of their
blood and treasure that we might become a free and independent
nation. The name of the Marquis de Lafayette has throughout the
days of our life as a nation been a household word among our
people. Nor did the fostering care of our French godfathers end at
Yorktown. From the day when Napoleon Bonaparte held his fastest
frigate forty-eight hours, while our Minister, Robert Livingston,
a brother Mason, penned that famous dispatch which culminated in
the purchase of Louisiana, we were destined to become a great
nation. Nor was this all, for while they aided us, for almost a
nominal consideration, to acquire title to this vast stretch of
country, they rendered most potent assistance in winning the Far
West from all opposing contenders.

When our frontier soldiers, under the masterful leadership of
George Rodgers Clark, wrested the Northwest, as it was then called,
from the British, we acquired, as appurtenant thereto, the
achievements of the intrepid French explorers and traders.
Following closely upon the heels of the Revolution there sprang up
along the waters of the great Mississippi and its tributaries a
thriving trade with the outlying Indian tribes, which soon crept
into that portion of the domain of the Spanish crown, known as
Mexico. This trade was handled almost entirely by the descendants
of La Belle France. As a natural consequence of this trade there
soon sprang up such trading posts or centers as Kaskaskie, St.
Genevieve and St. Louis.

These French traders purchased the greater portion of their goods
at Philadelphia and while in that city they met and associated with
members of the French lodges of Freemasons of that city,
established by Bro. Lafayette and his men during the War for
American Independence. These merchants in turn obtained
dispensations and established Masonic lodges in western trading
posts. These lodges were in their order as follows: Western Star
Lodge, No. 107, established at Kaskaskia in 1806; Louisiana Lodge,
No. 108, at St. Genevieve in 1807; and St. Louis Lodge, No. 3, in
1808. Among the membership of these lodges we find in Louisiana
Lodge, No. 109, at St. Genevieve such names as Pierre Chouteau and
Bartholomew Berthold, the founders of the great American Fur
Company, and Stephen F. Austin, the "father" of Texas; in St. Louis
Lodge, No. 3, we note among the members the names of Meriweather
Lewis, former private secretary of President Jefferson, and Gen.
William Clarke, the explorers. Such indeed is the background of our
sketch.

Col. St. Vrain, the hero of this sketch, was born near the city of
St. Louis about the year 1797. His father and uncle had fled from
France during that dark period of the French Revolution, the uncle
having been an heir apparent of French nobility. The father of
Ceran St. Vrain settled on the Bellefontaine Road, just out of what
was then St. Louis, and erected a fort, which was then, and until
after Ceran's birth, on Spanish territory. Of his early years
little is known. It is altogether probable that while a mere boy he
ventured out into the plains and the wilderness with the fur
traders of his time.

HE BECOMES A TRAPPER

In 1826 we find him a captain of a party of trappers leading an
expedition down through New Mexico as far as the river Gila. It was
on this expedition that Bro. Kit Carson made his maiden trip beyond
the frontier. At this time St. Vrain was probably associated with
William Bent, who, about 1824, had erected a stockade on the bank
of the Arkansas near where Pueblo now is. Soon afterwards the Bents
and St. Vrain erected another stockade near the junction of the
Purgatoire River with the Arkansas. In 1828 St. Vrain, associated
with William and Charles Bent, commenced the erection of a
formidable fort, afterwards known as Bent's Fort or Fort William,
on the north bank of the Arkansas River, a few miles east of the
present city of Las Animas, Colorado. Due credit has never been
given the founders of this citadel of peace, for the part it and
they played in the winning of the Great Southwest.--

It will be remembered that, arising out of the Louisiana Purchase,
the territorial claims of the United States covered the entire
watershed of the Red and Arkansas Rivers, which extended to within
about fifteen miles of Taos, New Mexico; that by the treaty of Feb.
22, 1819, between the United States and His Catholic Majesty the
King of Spain, in return for concessions in Florida the United
States moved its western boundary backward some three hundred
miles; that by this treaty the hundredth meridian was fixed as the
west boundary of the United States, north to the Arkansas River,
thence along the south bank of that stream to its source. This
boundary was afterwards ratified by the infant republic, Mexico,
which almost immediately had wrested its independence from Spain,
by a treaty signed in Mexico City on Jan. 28, 1828.

It will therefore be plainly seen how quickly the Bents and St.
Vrain saw and grasped the strategic importance of the site, so well
chosen by them, on the international boundary, for a large and
strongly fortified trading post, destined to do more than all the
country's soldiers in the winning of the Far West. The greater
proportion of the inhabitants of the country immediately south of
the border was made up of roving tribes of unconquered savages, who
were eager to trade their peltries and robes for the trinkets,
firearms and other goods of the white man.

The policy of Spain had been to exclude almost altogether any
American trade with its dominions in the Western Hemisphere. Mexico
cherished the same hope and laid its duties with a view to making
the American trade prohibitive and of creating a monopoly in favor
of its central states. The result was that there soon arose in
California and other outlying territories a great system of
smuggling. But the founders of this great trading post proposed to
keep within their legitimate rights; they planted their fort on the
border so that the Comanches, Arapahoes, Utes and Apaches could
migrate from their favorite hunting grounds, camp on the Arkansas
near the fort, and exchange their products of the chase for the
manufactured goods of the traders. If Mexico had any charges
against the Indians for duty on goods carried by them across the
border, it was up to it to collect from them. The fort was
completed in 1832. Speaking of its appearance, Capt. P. St. George
Cooke, who visited it in 1843, says:

"Over a smooth, gravelly second bank prairie we caught sight at
several miles distance the national flag floating amid picturesque
foliage and river scenery, over a low dark wall, which had a very
military semblance. Very gradually and tediously we approached and
then we were more surprised at the fine appearance and strength of
the trading post. An extensive square with high adobe walls and two
large towers at opposite angles and all properly loopholed. Our
near approach was saluted by three discharges from a swivel gun,
the walls being well 'manned.' The Colonel and suite were most
hospitably greeted at the sally port by Messrs. St. Vrain and C
(harles) Bent. The regiment marched on and encamped at the first
grassy meadow a mile or two lower down. A number of officers
partook of a good dinner at the post."

THEIR BUSINESS PROSPERED
The "Chinese Wall" erected by Spain and fostered by Mexico soon
began to crumble before the pressure of this stronghold of
commerce. Mexico soon discovered that if it did not let the traders
in, its people would go across the border to trade. Before the fort
was really completed St. Vrain and the Bents were able to make
their way to Santa Fe with goods, as will appear from a letter
written by St. Vrain to Bernard Pratte & Co. from that place on
Sept. 14, 1830, as follows:

"San Fernando del Taos, Sept. 14, 1830.

"Messrs. B. Pratte & Co.

"Gentlemen: It is with pleasure that I inform you of my last
arrival at Santa Fe which was the 4th of August. We were met at Red
River by General Biscara the customhouse officer and a few
soldiers, the object in coming out so far to meet us was to prevent
smuggling and it had the desired effect; there was a guard placed
around our wagons until we entered Santa Fe. We had to pay full
dutys which amounts to about 60 per cent on cost. I was the first
that put goods in the Customhouse and I opened immediately, but
goods sold very slow, so slow that it was discouraging. I found
that it was impossible to meet my payments, if I continued
retailing. I therefore thought it was best to hole saile. I have
done so. I send you by Mr. Andru Carson and Lavoise Ruel one wagon,
eleven mules, one horse and 653 skins of Beaver, 961 Ibs. (nine
hundred and sixty-one pounds), which you will have sold for my
account. I do not wish the mules sold unless they sell for a good
price. I am with much respect,

"Your obdt. servant,

"Ceran St. Vrain."

Soon after the completion of Bent's Fort this firm established a
branch post at Taos, New Mexico, and later on at Santa Fe, both of
which were maintained until the firm was dissolved by the death of
Governor Bent, in 1847. In 1838 they erected a fort on the South
Platte north of the site of Denver. This fort was called St.
Vrain's Fort. Gen. Fremont speaks of visiting this fort on his
first expedition to the Rocky Mountains. It was at the confluence
of the Cache le Poudre River with the South Platte. Francis
Parkman, who visited it in 1846, found it abandoned.

By this time the fur trade had suffered a great decline, the price
of beaver having suffered a great slump on account of the discovery
of a new way of making hats. The American Fur Company and the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company found their trade unprofitable. The latter
company went out of business entirely. Jedediah S. Smith, its most
daring captain, had quit the northwest fur trade and engaged in the
Santa Fe trade when he lost his life while blazing a new trail on
the Cimarron. But the business of Bent &; St. Vrain had been
established with a view of working both ways. They worked as far
north as Fort Lookout on the Missouri, and held the key to the
Southwest. They later erected a fort on the Canadian River in
northern Texas, known as the Adobe Fort.

THEIR TRADING POSTS BECAME A RENDEZVOUS FOR EXPLORERS

These trading posts became the rendezvous of the daring mountain
men, trappers and explorers who penetrated the mountain forests,
scaled the snow-capped peaks, blazed their trails through seemingly
inaccessible passes, encountered both savage and foreign foes, and
planted the American flag on the Pacific. A trading post of Bent &
St. Vrain was like a safe haven in the midst of the trackless
storm-tossed sea. When Marcus Whitman and A. Lawrence Lovejoy made
their famous ride in the winter of 1842-3 in an effort to save
Oregon to the United States, they availed themselves of the
hospitality of several of these posts and it fell to the lot of
Ceran St. Vrain to render substantial aid to Whitman in getting
across the plains, for he, on learning of Whitman's desire to
proceed across the plains, sent an express from Bent's Fort to
their caravan at the Big Cottonwood and held it until Whitman could
arrive.

In 1843, Ceran St. Vrain, believing that the course of empire was
westward, associated with him one Cornelio Vigil, a progressive
resident of Taos, New Mexico, and for invaluable and meritorious
service to the Mexican Government in maintaining peace with the
Indians on the frontier, made application to the Governor for a
grant of land for colonization purposes, the petition for which,
being translated, is in part as follows:

"That, desiring to encourage the agriculture of the country to such
a degree as to establish its flourishing condition, and finding
ourselves with but little land to accomplish the object, we have
examined and registered, with great care, the land embracing the
Huerfano, Pisipa and Cucheras Rivers, to their junction with the
Arkansas and the Animas, and, fintling sufficient for cultivation,
and abundance of pasture and water, and all that is required for a
flourishing establishment, and for raising cattle and sheep, being
satisfied therewith, and certain that it is public land, we have
not hesitated to apply to Your Excellency, praying you to be
pleased, by an act of justice, to grant to each one of us a tract
of land in the above mentioned locality."

The grant was accordingly made and the intent and purpose thereof
is probably best shown by a deed made in 1844 to St. Vrain's
partner, Charles Bent, which is as follows:

[TRANSLATION]

"DEED OF CONVEYANCE TO CHARLES BENT.

"The undersigned owners and possessers of the lands included from
the waters of the Rio de las Animas and of the Huerfano, within the
boundaries designated in the act of possession, for the purpose of
effecting and procuring means to settle those lands, for which
purpose we have solicited and obtained the concession of the
Government; and of our own free will, we cede to M. Charles Bent,
and to his successors, the one-sixth part of the land contained in
our possession at said place, to which we hereby renounce all our
rights, hereby obligating ourselves not to prescribe him in that
which we hereby grant unto him; it being our voluntary act and
deed, it being understood that we are to give to such families as
may transport themselves to said place, lands free of charge,
subject to the guarantees and benefits to each party, as may be
agreed upon in order to protect the settlements to be formed; and
by this extra-judicial document, which we execute on this common
paper (there being none of the corresponding seal), we, thus, as
our entire voluntary act, covenant; and this indenture shall be as
valid as if it was duly authenticated; and by the same we may be
compelled to observe and comply therewith; and in testimony
whereof, we sign this in Taos, on the 11th day of March, 1844.

WAR WAS DECLARED
Within about two years thereafter, the diplomatic relations between
the United States and Mexico, long strained, reached a breaking
point and war was declared between the two countries. The Army of
the West was organized and placed under the command of Col.,
afterwards Gen. Kearney. It proceeded, in several columns, to march
from the Missouri River to Bent's Fort, which was established as a
rendezvous. There the little expeditionary force rested a few days,
preparatory to the invasion of the enemy's country. We find that
the men who had been forerunners of the flag stood ready to render
any service in their power. Charles Bent served as chief
intelligence officer and Ceran St. Vrain hastened to St. Louis to
procure supplies and provisions soon to be needed. When the
soldiers crossed the frontier, they found that the traders had
accomplished by the arts of peace what they had expected to achieve
by the shedding of blood.

Ceran St. Vrain left St. Louis on the 1st of September, 1846, with
a cargo of goods for New Mexico. He was accompanied, among others,
by a young lad of seventeen years, Lewis H. Garrard, who left
behind a narrative of his thrilling experiences, published in 1850
under the title of Wah-To-Yah, or, The Taos Trail, which he
dedicated to the hero of our story in token of the many acts of
kindness by the latter. St. Vrain left Garrard at the fort and
proceeded on to Santa Fe with his goods where they would be most
needed. Soon after his arrival at that place the Taos Insurrection
broke out and Gov. Chas. Bent was assassinated, under circumstances
narrated in a former sketch. [THE BUILDER, December, 1923, P.358.]
St. Vrain, on learning that his friend and partner had been slain,
enlisted the services of about sixty mountain men at Santa Fe and
tendered his little command to Col. Price, who immediately
proceeded with such force as was available to Taos to avenge the
death of the Governor and other countrymen. St. Vrain was given a
commission as captain and rendered gallant and meritorious service
at La Canada, Embudo, and at the Taos Pueblo. At the latter place
he came near to losing his own life in a personal encounter with
the Indians. He served as court interpreter in the trials of the
conspirators and was afterwards tendered the office of governor of
the territory, which he declined.

ST. VRAIN SETTLED AT TAOS
After the restoration of order, Capt. St. Vrain settled down in
Taos, New Mexico, known then as Don Fernando de Taos, where he had
a store on the south side of the plaza in his business as a trader.
In 1849 he was elected to, and served as a member of, the
Constitutional Convention, convened at Santa Fe on Sept. 24 of that
year.

During the years 1854, 5 and 6 the Ute and Apache Indians had given
the people of New Mexico deal of trouble, waging constant war on
the unprotected settlements and even came near annihilating a
couple of companies of the First United States Dragoons in a fight
in the Embudo Mountains near Taos. The civil and military
authorities in Santa Fe decided to put an end to these troubles.
Volunteers were accordingly asked for. Col. De Witte C. Peters, in
his Life of Kit Carson, published in 1858, in speaking of this
affair, says:

"The organization of the Mexican volunteers was made complete by
the Governor of the Territory, who selected as their leader Mr.
Ceran St. Vrain of Taos. This gentleman, although he had much
important business which called his attention elsewhere,
immediately expressed his willingness to accept the responsible
position which, without solicitation, had been conferred upon him.
The commission received by St. Vrain gave him the rank of
lieutenant-colonel. Without delay he set about the difficult and
important work that lay before him, bringing to bear upon the
details that sound judgment, gentlemanly bearing and ready zeal
which had long characterized the man. He had the good fortune to
secure the services of Lieutenant Creigg of the regular army, whom
he appointed as one of his aides-de-camp. Having completed his
staff and other arrangements to place his force upon a military
basis, he was ready to take the field.

"The appointment of St. Vrain as commander of the Volunteers, was
hailed with delight throughout the territory. His great experience
in the mountains, his knowledge of the Indian mode of warfare, and
the respect which the people he was called upon to command
invariably paid him, seemed to convince every thinking mind that
something more than usual was to be accomplished. They felt that
the wrongs of their country would be certainly redressed. The
sequel will prove that the people were not doomed to
disappointment."

Lieut.-Col. St. Vrain thereupon reported to Col. T. T. Fauntleroy
who forthwith launched an expedition against the warlike savages.
The command proceeded to Ft. Massachusetts, near the station of
Garland, in Colorado; thence they pursued a westerly course to the
head waters of the Rio Grande; from thence they crossed the
Saguache Pass where they found the Indians encamped in a large
village. They gave them battle and put them to flight with heavy
loss. Col. Fauntleroy then divided his command, sending Col. St.
Vrain with his command to the eastward across the main range where
he again encountered the fleeing fugitives and inflicted upon them
a terrible loss. Kit Carson, who accompanied this expedition as a
scout, referring to it afterwards in his personal narrative
dictated to Col. Peters, the MS. of which is now in the Newbury
Library in Chicago, in substance said, that if the operations of
this voluntary organization had continued a few months longer under
Col. St. Vrain's direction, there would never again have been any
need for soldiers in the Southwest.

The term of service of this organization having expired they were
mustered out and Col. St. Vrain returned to his business at Taos.
He erected and operated extensive flour mills and extended his
business operations in all directions. In the first issue of the
Rocky Mountain News, published at Cherry Creek [now Denver], Kansas
Territory, in 1859, we find an item announcing that Col. St. Vrain
had lately arrived at that place with a train load of flour from
Taos.

ST. VRAIN ENTERED THE CIVIL WAR
When the Civil War broke out Col. St. Vrain, like Bro. Kit Carson,
joined hands with the North and very promptly tendered his services
to his country. When the call for volunteers came he helped to
organize the First New Mexico Cavalry and was elected its first
Colonel. Kit Carson was elected lieutenant-colonel. He was soon
obliged, owing to poor health, to relinquish his command to the
latter, with the consolation, however, that it would render a good
account of itself. In this he was not disappointed. He continued to
render valuable service to his country by keeping his mills
grinding and supplying the various military posts of the Southwest
with flour and other articles of subsistence.

Col. St. Vrain, like many other sturdy men of the frontier, was
long prepared in his heart to become a Freemason, before he had had
an opportunity to knock at the door of a lodge. He had been
intimately acquainted and more or less associated with men like
Charles Bent, Dr. Dayid Waldo, James Kennerly, and Col. Dodge, who
had long been members of the Order. He therefore presented himself
for initiation March 22, 1853; was passed April 16, 1853; and
raised Jan. 28, 1855, receiving his degrees in Montezuma Lodge, No.
109, of the jurisdiction of Missouri, at Santa Fe. He demitted
therefrom April 7, 1860, and together with Bros. Kit Carson, Peter
Joseph, Ferdinand Maxwell, John M. Francisco, A. S. Ferris, and
others he formed a lodge at Taos, under a charter from the Grand
Lodge of Missouri, issued on the 1st day of June, 1860. This lodge
was known as Bent Lodge, No. 204.

About the close of the Civil War, in order to better conduct his
business for furnishing supplies to the Government, Col. St. Vrain
moved to Mora, which was near Ft. Union, the principal military
base of the Southwest. Col. James F. Meline, who visited New
Mexico, in 1866, in his book entitled Two Thousand Miles on
Horseback, in speaking of the Colonel, says:

"Mora is the residence of Lieutenant-Colonel Ceran St. Vrain one of
the most distinguished of the band of early pioneer traders and
trappers--Bent, Kit Carson, Bridger, Maxwell--who survives. Colonel
St. Vrain's wealth in land is very great, and he owns under a
Spanish grant, one tract of land a hundred miles square, bounded by
the Snowy Range, the Rio de las Animas and the Arkansas. St. Vrain
was, with Kit Carson found on the side of his country in the hour
of trouble, and threw the influence of his high personal character,
great popularity, and immense wealth, in the scale of freedom
against slavery." (pp. 109-110.)

Here he spent the most of his declining years. We learn from Albert
D. Richardson, in his Beyond the Mississippi that, "after
accumulating an ample fortune (he) went to New York City with a
determination of spending his days. But he found life there
insupportable, and soon returned to New Mexico, vowing he would
never leave it again."

HE DIED IN 1870
He was gathered to his fathers Oct. 28, 1870. Speaking of his
passing the Daily New Mexican, under date of Oct. 29, 1870, said:

"DEATH OF CERAN ST. VRAIN

"We received this morning, by telegraph, from Fort Union the
painful intelligence, that Col. Ceran St. Vrain of Mora departed
this life at six o'clock last night.

"Col. St. Vrain came to New Mexico more than forty years ago and
has been one of its most highly and respected and influential
citizens ever since. Possessed of good education, fine natural
abilities, the highest style of courtesy and very good energy and
enterprise, he at once engaged in merchandising and manufacturing,
by the legitimate profits of which he has accumulated a handsome
property. His upright dealing, fairness and courteous treatment of
all with whom he came in contact won him hosts of friends, who will
sincerely sorrow at his death.

"Every enterprise looking to the improvement of the country
received willing and earnest support and sympathy from him, and
many hundreds of honest poor men have been by him furnished with
the means to start again, and repair the misfortunes of the past.
In every part of this Territory there are men who will feel that in
the death of Col. St. Vrain, not only has the country lost one of
its best citizens, but that they have lost one of their truest and
noblest personal friends.

"To the friends of the deceased we tender our sincerest condolence
and commend his virtues and enterprise to the imitation of his
thousands of acquaintances in the Territory."

The Rocky Mountain News of Denver, under date of Oct. 31, 1870, had
this to say:

"Ft. Union, Oct. 31, 1870.

"Col. St. Vrain, the oldest pioneer of the Rocky Mountains died at
his residence in Mora at six o'clock the 28th. The funeral took
place on Sunday the 30th and was attended by Gen. Gregg and nearly
all the officers of Ft. Union. Col. Starr of the 8th Cavalry with
his troop acted as escort and the General and his staff as pall
bearers. The regimental band furnished the music. He was buried by
the Masons and as Col. of Volunteers with Military honor. Over
2,000 people were present. The Services were highly impressive."

A monument was erected over his grave with Masonic emblems--square
and compasses--but the writer has been informed by Bro. Z. S.
Lonquevan, who for many years resided at Mora, that the Masonic
emblems have been defaced.

Freemasons should take pride in paying a tribute of respect and
love to the memory of this worthy brother, who was born a Spanish
subject, of French extraction, and yet whose loyalty to the country
which adopted him was the admiration of all who knew him.

