Pilcher's Post (Bellevue, Nebraska)

Bellevue · Nebraska · Fur Trade Era

Quick BriefPilcher's Post, established in 1822 by Joshua Pilcher of the Missouri Fur Company, became one of Nebraska's first European-American settlements on the Missouri River. In 1828 Lucien Fontenelle purchased the post, eventually selling it to the U.S. government in 1832. The Bureau of Indian Affairs then used it as headquarters of the Missouri River Indian Agency.

History & Significance

Joshua Pilcher established the trading post in late 1822 on a bluff above the Missouri River a few miles north of the Platte, positioning it as a way station and supply depot where furs could be dried, beaten, sorted and weighed before shipment to St. Louis. The post served as a center for trading with local Omaha, Otoe, Missouri, and Pawnee tribes.

By 1828, the settlement included a main house, smith's shops, houses for the Otoes and Omahas, a council house and an interpreter's residence, with trade, smith's work, council meetings and translation all taking place within that cluster of buildings on the bluff. In 1823 Astor bought Pilcher's, bringing it into his monopoly of the fur trade under the American Fur Company.

Following Missouri Fur Company's reorganization with financial difficulties, Lucien Fontenelle, who became one of the most prominent leaders of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, acquired ownership in 1828 when the reorganized company disbanded. With the fur trade declining due to changes in European taste and declining game, Fontenelle sold the post to the U.S. government in 1832, where it was used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the headquarters of the Missouri River Indian Agency, also called the Bellevue Agency.