Fontenelle's Post

At first Pilcher competed with John Jacob Astor's Cabanné's Post of the American Fur Company (AFC) north of Bellevue.

In 1828 the trader Lucien Fontenelle, born into a wealthy French Creole family in New Orleans, purchased Pilcher's Trading Post.

Like many traders, Fontenelle had married a high-status Native American woman, and formed important alliances with her people.

In 1833, the US Indian agent allowed Moses and Eliza Merrill, Baptist missionaries, to live at the Post as a temporary home.

He served as an interpreter during the important negotiations of 1853-1854 that resulted in the Omaha ceding most of their territory to the United States, in exchange for annuities and goods, and settling on a reservation in northeastern Nebraska.

At one time, the Bellevue and Council Bluffs area was bristling with trading posts on both sides of the Missouri River, reflecting the busy economy related to western emigration.

When the French Creole Peter Sarpy came from New Orleans about 1823, he first worked for his brother's father-in-law, John Cabanné, who had a post for the American Fur Company.

Some years later, Sarpy established his own trading post on the east side of the Missouri River, in what became Iowa.

Owned by Astor's American Fur Company, Sarpy's Post served mostly European and United States travelers, and especially outfitted pioneer expeditions going west.

He carried travelers for the Oregon Trail, men going west for the California Gold Rush, and Mormon pioneers.

In 1850 it was called the Council Bluffs Post Office and was located at Sarpy's Point, present-day Iowa.