The clans of the Peptrie or small Osage occupied the areas of upper Current and Eleven Point Rivers and developed the trade routes between the Spanish controlled southwest and Virginia.
The oldest trail through the Ozark region to be used by white men was named after the Franciscan Monks who were known as Franquelians.
They traveled with the Spanish adventurers in their search for gold and glory but were consecrated to poverty and religion. There was no humiliation too great for them. They wore a single garment of coarse wool with a hemp rope as a belt. There were a large number who came to the new world starting with Columbus and continuing through the Spanish and French periods. The movement ended when this area was taken over by Americans.
They were the only white men to make record of their travel through this region for a period of about two hundred years. They traveled on old Indian trails that had been used for hundreds of years before. The trail started in present Northern Louisiana and ran north through the Caddoian Indian clans along the Red River and Southern Arkansas. It crossed the lands of the small Osages located north of the Arkansas and White Rivers and continued northward to cross the western part of present Howell County for the length of the county. About 15 miles northwest of present Mountain View. Mo. it joined the Osage Trail. The junction was on the south prong of the Upper Jacks Fork River.
The Franquelians were accepted by the Indian clans and often lived with the Indians and mixed bloods of the upper reaches of the Current and Eleven Point Rivers for periods of many years. They worked with their hands and trained the Indians in crafts of the white man.
The Franquelians at times followed the Osage Trail north to the villages along the Missouri and Osage Rivers to do missionary work among the fierce warrior clans of the Grande Osage. They could turn west along the Osage Trail to the villages of the southern Osages located on the Upper Verdigris River and continued west along the old Caddoian Trail to the Wichita Villages and go all the way to Santa Fe, the location of the district office of the northern Mexico district.
They also controlled the French and Indian trade over the Osage Trails. The continued movement of horses eastward to the settlements where they were in great demand caused a number of stands to be opened along the Virginia Warriors Path and the Lead Mine Trail.