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| Birth: | 15 Mar 1790 in Culpeper Co., VA |
| Death: | 5 Jun 1843 in St. Louis, MO. |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | Joshua PILCHER b. 1749 in Culpeper County, Virginia |
| Mother: | Nancy Ballard b. About 1750 |
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Individual:
Joshua was a fur trader, Indian Agent for St. Louis and Council
Bluffs. Charter member of Missouri #1 A.F. and A.M.
Accumulated a large fortune and died without ever having married.
1819 Joshua Pilcher moves from Indian camp to Indian camp trading for furs during the unusually bitter winter, learning the rudiment of the fur-trading business. Lisa's health deteriorates during the winter at Council Bluffs and Joshua assumes more authority at the post. Lisa leaves for St. Louis in early April while Joshua remains at Council Bluffs observing the details of the fur trade. He forms a close friendship with John Doughtery, Indian interpreter at Council Bluffs who accompanies him on at least one visit to the Indians in the fall of 1819 with the young and handsome William Henry Vanderburgh. In time, business and politics will destroy his friendship with Doughtery but Vanderburgh and Joshua remain cordial until the younger man's untimely death in 1832.
1825 On March 5th, President Adams nominates Joshua for the position, and the Senate consents to it two days later. The immediate confirmation and the timing of the appointment strongly suggests Joshua might have favored Adams in the extremely controversial election of 1824, although his friend Benton had supported Clay. Benton, however, backs Joshua for the consular post, and hoping to encourage American trade in the Southwest, shepherds a bill through the Senate and into law, early in 1825 appropriating $30,000 for an immediate survey of the Santa Fe Trail, but due to a long illness Joshua is unable to leave the country and fulfill this position.
1828 Joshua Pilcher moves west to Bear Lake for the summer rendezvous and sold their remaining goods to the trappers. They picked their way slowly over the mountains, trapped a few beaver and reached Clark's Fork in western Montana. The snow drifted, so they made winter camp in the timber near Flathead Lake, and waited for spring.
1837 Two weeks before Joshua Pilcher gets up from his sick bed (he's been bedridden from Christmas time until March 21, 1837) President Van Buren nominates him Indian agent to the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Ponca Indians. Benton informs Joshua of the good news, and at the end of the month Secretary of War Joel R. Poinsett sends his new commission. His salary this time is $2,000.
1838 Joshua Pilcher is Superintendent of Indian Affairs, succeeding William Clark.
1838 In December Joshua travels east by stage from Liberty, Missouri, to Washington. In the capital he takes a room for two months beginning January 5, makes contact with Benton and settles his Sioux Agency accounts with the Indian Office.
1839 On February 28th Joshua is nominated for superintendent and President Van Buren immediately sends his name to the Senate Committee on Indian affairs. During this time, approximately thirty-five agents, sub-agents, interpreters, blacksmiths, farmers, and others work in agencies or sub agencies at Fort Leavenworth, Council Bluffs, the Uppers Missouri, and the Osage River, under his jurisdiction. Joshua finds this job complicated, challenging and frustrating at a salary of $2,600.
1842 During the two-year term as superintendent of Indian affairs, the government added to Joshua's duties, the disbursing responsibility for the Iowa and Wisconsin superintendencies, and under such stress and already in poor health, Joshua dies on the 5th of June. - He is buried in lot ten of St. Luke's Square Episcopal Cemetery, St. Louis. Mentioned in the will, Pilcher has spoken of a tour of the South which he proposes taking for his health and orders that Colonel Benton be notified if he dies on the tour.
ID: I41
Name: Joshua PILCHER Jr.
Sex: M
Birth: 1790 in Virginia (prob Culpeper Co)
Death: 5 JUN 1843
Burial: 1843 Christ Church Cemetary, St Louis, Mo
Residence: 1790 Culpeper Co, Va
Residence: 1793 Fayette Co, Ky
Residence: 1810 Nashville, Davidson Co, Tn
Residence: 1814 St Louis, Mo
RETI: 1841 St Louis, Mo
Occupation: Merchant craftsman 7 JULY 1810
Occupation: Part owner of a dry goods store & banker 1815
Occupation: Field Operations Manager, Missouri Fur Company 1819
Occupation: Indian Agent, Federal Indian Services MAR 1834
Occupation: Superintendent, Indian Affairs, St Louis, Mo 10 MAR 1938
Note:
Joshua was three when his family make the 500 mile trek from Culpeper to Fayette County, Ky. Though quite successful, he never married. He was an Indian Agent under President Van Buren. Over the years, he accumulated "a large fortune," dying in St. Louis, Missouri in 1841 or 42.
Following his father's death, Joshua moved to Nashville, Tennessee. On 7 July 1810, he acquired ownership of the "Hat Store at Nashville" from Mr. John Lowry. The store was destroyed by a fire on 2 March 1814 that had broken out in a house on the square and quickly spread to several businesses. He was able to reopened the business with limited stock from a small place he was able to rent on Market Steeet; however, He apparently elected to give up the business because on 25 October he called upon his customers to settle their accounts. Shortly thereafter, sometime in late 1814, he left Nashville for St Louis, Missouri (then the Missouri territory). Before leaving Nashville, he had joined the Cumberland Lodge Number 8 of the Masonic Order, received the Past Master's degree and been admitted for membership in the Grand Lodge of Tennessee.
As trade improved in the then Missouri Territory, Joshua invested in a partnership with N. S. Anderson, selling dry goods. he was also engaged in banking for a short time. His partner ship with N.S. Anderson lasted until Anderson's death in 1816. Following this, at 29, he joined the Missouri Fur Company in 1819 and a year later became their manager of field operations. In 1823, he served as a Major in the defense forces raised in the Missouri territory during a campaign against the Aricara Indians.
During the summer of 1833, he had taken the daughter of Michel Barada as a wife. During this time of his life, most of his time was spent in Council Bluffs, Ia, where they met. Council Bluffs was some 400+ miles northwest of St Louis. She died of cholera, apparently during or very soon after the birth of their child John. For reasons unstated, Joshua turned his infant son John over to Big Elk, an Omaha chief. However, he was raised as John Pilcher within the Omaha tribe.
Joshua spent most of the remainder of his life as an Indian Agent for the Federal Indian Services until 1838 when he was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs, St. Louis, Missouri. He contracted pulmonary consumption between 1838 and 1841. He retired, in not good health, in 1841. Neither medication nor climate change improved his condition which continued to deteriorate. In 1842, as he wrote his will on November 18, 1842. He died almost nine months later on 5 June 1843. He was initially interred in Christ Church Cemetery in South St. Louis. In 1884, when Christ Church was closed, Virginia C. Brooks, widow of Edward Brooks, Joshua's closest friend, authorized his remains to be moved to the Brooks' plat at Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri.
On 8 June 1843, the day after he was buried, the Missouri Reporter stated in part:
"...few men in the West [are] intimately acquainted with our Indian relations...No man was more 'desirour' than Joshua Pilcher of promoting the happiness and assuaging the miseries of the red man."
In his will, Joshua left his estate to his sister Margaret, wife of Hiram Shaw. He made no mention of his son John in Nebraska, with whom he had had little or no known contact since leaving him with Big Elk as an infant. In addition to Margaret, and the details of the design of his place of last rest, he did leave several bequests to some of his friends.
Father: Joshua PILCHER b: 1749 in Culpeper Co, Va
Mother: Nancy BALLARD b: bef 1749 in Culpeper Co, Va
Suggested Next Step:
Search OneWorldTree for:
Pilcher, Joshua Jr.
Marriage 1 Poporine BARADA b: CA 1810
Married: 6 DEC 1832 in Bellevue Sarpy, Ne
Children
John PILCHER b: 25 DEC 1833 in Omaha Reserve, Ne
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