CANE RIVER CACHET – December 22, 2001

By Ada D. Jarred


The city of Natchitoches is readily recognized as a regional center of trade.  Natchitoches’ prime location for commerce was realized far earlier than the arrival of the Wal-Mart Supercenter.  In fact, Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis established the settlement of Natchitoches in 1714 while he journeyed from Mexico to Mobile, Alabama on a trade assignment.  St. Denis’s purpose in leaving men in this location was to guard supplies and to trade with the Natchitoches Indians.

Two years later, Sieur Charles Claude Dutisné arrived in Natchitoches with troops to build and man an outpost to prevent Spanish troops in Texas from crossing the border into French Louisiana.  The garrison was designated Fort St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches.  Natchitoches became a major French center of trade with the Caddos; by the mid 1700s the tribes were heavily dependent on French trade goods.

The fort served as a military outpost and commercial trade center until 1762, when France was defeated by England in the French and Indian War.  France ceded the Louisiana colony to Spain, and Natchitoches continued as a Spanish trade center.

A Northwestern thesis, written by David L. LaVere in 1989, details the story of “Barr, Davenport, Murphy and Smith: Traders on the Louisiana-Texas Frontier.”  The following information is gathered from his work.

Throughout the early nineteenth century, both the United States and Spain tried to secure alliances with Native Americans along the Texas-Louisiana frontier by using trade and gifts.  Spain utilized a firm of four partners–William Barr, Samuel Davenport, Edward Murphy and Luther Smith–to obtain loyalty from the Texas Indians.  The partners’ trading house also provided supplies for military posts and towns of east Texas as well as credit and loans to Spanish citizens, military personnel, and government officials.

Originally, Spain tried to close the border between Texas and Louisiana to protect its rich provinces of New Spain from the Americans.  The closure restricted trade to merchants licensed by the government to deal with the Indians and to pacify the Indians with presents and trade.  Spanish laws also forbade travel and communication between Louisiana and Texas.

The partnership of Barr, Davenport, Murphy, and Smith was essential to deliver merchandise and satisfy Native American wants, thereby fulfilling Spanish strategy.  The four men were Spain’s General Purveyors to the Indians of east Texas in the early nineteenth century, supplying trade goods and serving as diplomatic officials.  They purchased goods in Louisiana, stored the items in Natchitoches, and delivered the merchandise to Nacogdoches.  Once in Texas, the goods became presents for the Indians or items for barter with the tribes.

Edward Murphy, a young Irishman, settled in Natchitoches in 1785.  He quickly prospered, acquired land and became one of the leading merchants of Natchitoches.  Murphy kept boats and barges moving goods between Natchitoches and New Orleans, a journey of 25 or 26 days for a loaded barge.  One of the buildings owned by Murphy is the Wells home on Williams Avenue; the structure dates from the 1770s.

William Barr, another Irishman, arrived in Natchitoches about 1786.  Barr served in the Continental Army but left army life, citing incompatibility.  In 1793 Barr moved to Nacogdoches.  He remained in Spanish Texas throughout the remainder of his life.

Peter Samuel Davenport, born in Pennsylvania, arrived in Natchitoches in 1785 or 1786.  He also became a merchant and a trader.  In 1794 Barr also moved to Nacogdoches, but he traveled frequently between Nacogdoches and Natchitoches.  Barr and Davenport became friends in Texas. 

Luther Smith of New York was the fourth partner, and little is known of his life.  The four men established a trading firm in 1798 and acquired two tracts of land east of the Sabine River.  The partnership also owned land in West Florida, a small ranch west of Nacogdoches, and two structures in Nacogdoches.

In 1799, the Spanish Louisiana Governor Manuel Gayoso authorized Barr to export horses and mules from Texas to Louisiana.  The following year Spanish officials contracted with the trading house to supply merchandise and presents to the Indians in northern and eastern Texas.  Murphy remained in Natchitoches, purchasing good and shipping them to Nacogdoches.  Barr and Davenport in Nacogdoches operated a network of 22 Indian traders and gave gifts to Indians who visited the town.  Smith was responsible for driving the herds of mustangs acquired in trade back to Louisiana and West Florida.  In carrying out the wishes of the Spanish government and by being allowed to travel and communicate across the border, the firm because influential with the residents, soldiers and government officials of the two colonies.

In those days a trip from Natchitoches to Nacogdoches and back took 15-22 days.  The trading house regularly supplied the Spanish with food, candles, suet and pitch.  They also loaned money to authorities and expended much effort in trying to collect their accounts.  Merchandise for the Texas Indian trade consisted of such items as guns, knives, scissors, axes, combs, copper wire, glass beads, mirrors, belts, shirts, walking sticks, copper boilers, woolen dresses, woolen waistcoats, short breeches, bolts of wool and spades. 

Evidence shows that the Native Americans were discriminating traders.  They recognized quality merchandise and fair prices.  According to the Spanish, the Indians around Bexar did not appreciate the tobacco and cigars stocked there, so rolls of leaf tobacco were ordered from Louisiana.  Indians trading at Natchitoches insisted on gunpowder from the Dupont factory in Delaware instead of gunpowder from Kentucky that they deemed inferior.  The Indians also were bargain-seekers, playing the American and Spanish traders against each other.  Favorite gifts of the Indians were red cloth, buttons, brandy, guns, shot and powder.

The traders gathered mustangs and skins from the Indians and drove them to Nacogdoches, stored the pelts in warehouses, and kept the horses on their ranches until Murphy’s carts arrived.  Hundreds of horses were herded east and sold to American farmers.  In l802 John Sibley reported that over 7,300 Texas horses passed through Louisiana heading east.  Eventually, Spanish officials banned the exportation of horses to Louisiana.  For a while the firm was exempted from the ban; however, that concession was finally denied.

The ban plus American competition began to erode the firm’s profits.  John Sibley and the Indian factory offered heavy rivalry for the Indian trade.  Over time the trading group was ended by the death of the partners.  Smith and Murphy died in 1808; Barr followed in 1810.  Davenport was left with the firm, unable to handle the business without his partners.  Further misfortune befell him in the form of poor judgment; he joined the Gutierrez-Magee invasion of Texas and betrayed his Spanish loyalties.  Davenport forfeited his business and his ability to reside in Spanish territory in 1813.

A comparable partnership never was formed to replace Barr, Davenport, Murphy, and Smith.  The population of east Texas dwindled, and small settlements disappeared after losing their source of supplies.  For fifteen years the trading house was a major factor in sustaining the Spanish rule of east Texas and in maintaining friendly relations between the Texas Indians and the Spanish.

The Cane River National Heritage Area is not involved in the sale of goods; however, it seeks to promote the heritage tourism trade in Natchitoches and the surrounding area.

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