Collection of early merchants' papers related to Indigenous affairs

This collection contains papers created by three early merchants: Thomas Forsyth, Russell Farnham, and Edward Kilbourn.

Thomas Forsyth, an Upper Mississippi Valley resident, was the St. Louis Indian agent and the Indian affairs agent for commerce in the 1820s and 1830s. He owned fur-trading posts in Quincy, Peoria, and Rock Island, Illinois. He was employed by the government to negotiate with the Potawatomi, Sauk, and Fox, who knew him as Mah-tah-win (the corn).

Russell Farnham was an important individual in the fur trade, as well as a pioneer in the American Midwest. Farnham became George Davenport’s partner in the fur trade in 1824, and bought local land with him. He was also a member of the American Fur Company, and helped to establish the first American fur trading posts west of the Mississippi.

Edward Kilbourn was a land investor who lived in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the early 19th century. Along with another Pittsfield resident, Alfred Buell, Kilbourn founded a colony that eventually settled in La Grange, Illinois, although Kilbourn never lived in La Grange himself. Following the 1834 repeal of an 1824 treaty establishing a tract of land in Iowa between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers (commonly known as the "Half-Breed Tract" due to its originally being ceded to individuals of Sauk, Fox, and Anglo-American descent), Kilbourn became one of the claim jumpers who took advantage of the availability of new lands. In 1838, Kilbourn purchased land from nine indigenous men and women, including Ke-O-Kuk, a Sauk leader.