Background
Kenneth Mackenzie was born on April 15, 1797, in the shire of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. He was the son of Alexander and Isabella (Mackenzie) Mackenzie.
Kenneth Mackenzie was born on April 15, 1797, in the shire of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. He was the son of Alexander and Isabella (Mackenzie) Mackenzie.
In 1816, at the suggestion of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, a kinsman, Kenneth went to Canada and entered the employ of the North West Company. In February 1822, he appeared in St. Louis and immediately applied for citizenship. Here he organized the Columbia Fur Company with a rather small capital stock.
The principal power of the company was in the personnel bold, experienced, and energetic men, including several former North-Westerners. Their trade extended north to the headwaters of the Mississippi, east to the Great Lakes, and west to the Missouri River.
When the Western Department of the American Fur Company was organized, its promoters found Mackenzie's outfit such a strong rival in the Sioux and Omaha countries that they could not operate without a loss of at least ten thousand dollars annually. After a bitter fight, the American Fur Company tried to buy out the Mackenzie group.
For almost a year, efforts were made to prevent competition by agreement, and finally, in July 1827, there was an amalgamation of the two companies. Kenneth Mackenzie and two of his partners were given separate shares in the Upper Missouri Outfit of the American Fur Company. By this arrangement, Mackenzie and these partners got control of Upper Missouri and became as independent as if they had remained in a separate company.
Mackenzie carried on the trade in regions made dangerous by hostile Indians, from which other traders had been driven. Within four years, he had posted on the Yellowstone, Bighorn, and Marais rivers. He built Fort Union, the best-equipped post west of the Mississippi. Here he reigned, feared and loved by his men and by the Indians, coming to be called "King of Missouri, " "Emperor Mackenzie, " and "Emperor of the West. "
In 1834, he was charged with having erected a distillery at Fort Union, contrary to law. This unfortunate occurrence threatened the Company's charter and forced Mackenzie to leave the country for a time. In the winter of that year he went abroad to study wine making, and while in Germany was the guest of Prince Maximilian.
During this same year, he joined the firm of Chouteau & Mackenzie, commission and forwarding merchants, which firm dissolved in July 1841. After returning from Europe in the summer of 1835, he went back to Fort Union. His last trip seems to have been made a decade later.
Until about 1850, he was connected with Pierre Chouteau, Jr. & Company in the fur trade, although he spent little time at his old post. He continued his business as commission merchant and importer of foreign liquors until 1854, and then, for the rest of his life, dealt solely in liquors. He invested largely in lands in Missouri, Illinois, and Minnesota, as well as in railroads and other industries, and by the time of his death in St. Louis, he had amassed a fortune.
McKenzie was like a king at Fort Union: dressed in a fine uniform, he lived in a residence with the rare luxury of glass windows and earned a reputation both as a martinet who brooked no insubordination and as a gracious host who presided over the best table of food and wine in the West.
Mackenzie married Mary Marshall, June 26, 1842, at St. Louis. He had six children, two of whom died in infancy.