He and his sons had a long relationship with the American Fur Company, founded by John Jacob Astor.
Joseph was born in Sault-au-Récollet, Quebec, Canada, and relocated to St. Louis with his parents when he was 10, traveling via the Chicago Portage.
In the later 18th and early 19th centuries, St. Louis was a major trading hub with both the Indians and Western settlers.
Frequently changing hands among the British, French and Spanish, the rules were often confusing, and Joseph managed to be on many sides of an issue.
As an example, in his last letter before his tragic suicide, Meriwether Lewis wrote to Thomas Jefferson: On my way to St. Louis, last fall, I received satisfactory evidence that a Mr. Robideau [sic], an inhabitant of St. Louis, had, the preceding winter, during intercourse with the Ottoes and Missouris, been guilty of the most flagrant breaches of the first of those misdemeanors above mentioned ... And Mr. Robidoux and sons still prosecute their trade.