William Lewis Sublette was an American pioneer, frontiersman, trapper, fur trader, explorer, and mountain man, who, with his four brothers, after 1823, became an agent of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and later, one of its co-owners, exploiting the riches of the Oregon Country.
Background
William was born on September 21 1798 in Lincoln County, Kentucky, United States. The Sublettes were Huguenots who settled in Manakin-Town, Virginia. Colonel William C. Whitley, the grandfather of William Sublette, was likewise a Virginian.
Career
With his family and friends Whitley accompanied his kinsman, George Rogers Clark, to Kentucky in 1772, and was engaged in close combat with Chief Tecumseh in the battle of the Thames, where both were killed. The Sublette name was conspicuous in the fur trade, five brothers being thus engaged. Milton, long known as one of the most enterprising and daring Indian traders, was second in prominence to William.
The family moved to St. Charles, Missouri, about 1818, where William served as constable. Lured by the advertisements of William Henry Ashley for "enterprising young men, " William Sublette joined Ashley's expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Citizens of St. Charles fitted him out with a rifle and buckskin suit, his sole possessions.
He was with Ashley in the Arikara fight on June 2, 1823, and served as sergeant-major under Colonel Leavenworth in the attack upon the Arikara villages in August. Ashley formed a strong friendship for him, and after five years outfitted him for an expedition of his own.
Part of the Oregon Trail was first known as Sublette's cut-off, and Sublette's trace. The firm of Smith, Jackson, and Sublette took the first wagons over the difficult trail to the Rockies, a feat previously deemed impossible. The last rendezvous of this firm was held in the summer of 1830. They sold out their joint interests but retained their furs, cattle, and wagons.
This wagon train and collection of furs was so large as to create a sensation on arrival at St. Louis in the fall. The same men ventured on an expedition to Santa Fe in 1831, when Smith was killed by Indians. In the summer of 1832 William Sublette went again to the Rocky Mountains, and was wounded in the famous fight at Pierre's Hole.
This firm continued in business for ten years and was a serious competitor of the American Fur Company. Their principal trading posts were on the Platte River at the mouth of the Laramie, and on the Missouri near Fort Union. They had a large store in St. Louis. Sublette had a wigwam built in the rear of this store, where he maintained a family of Indians during his lifetime.
He died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while on his way to Cape May in search of health.
Achievements
Personality
William Sublette was a bold, shrewd, character.
Connections
He was married on March 21, 1844, to Frances Hereford of Tuscumbia, Alabama.