Manuel Lisa - Later Life

Later Life

After the war, Lisa's reputation in St. Louis improved as a result of his success in the fur trade and having aided the Americans. In 1815, he invited 43 Native American chiefs and headmen from various tribes living between the Mississippi and Missouri to the city to strengthen their alliance with the Americans, and entertained them for about three weeks. He conducted them to Portage des Sioux to meet with the commissioners William Clark, Edwards and Auguste Chouteau to sign treaties of friendship. About two years later, he hosted another 24 chiefs from the Pawnee, Missouri and Sioux before another treaty signing.

In St. Louis, Lisa was considered an ally of the landed elite. He became more affiliated with leading American members of St. Louis, including Edward Hempstead, a land claims attorney, and Thomas Hart Benton, editor of the St. Louis Enquirer. In the fall of 1817, while the trader was on an expedition up the Missouri, his first wife Polly Lisa died.

In 1818 Lisa was with most of the residents in St. Louis, who turned out to welcome the newly assigned Bishop Louis William Du Bourg. He had decided to make St. Louis the seat of the diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas. Lisa and other Creole families pledged substantial funds to build a church (now called the Old Cathedral) near the river that was fit for the diocese. After his return from that year's expedition, on August 5, 1818 Lisa married the widow Mary Hempstead Keeny (a sister of Edward Hempstead). As a measure of Lisa's social standing, Pierre Chouteau was a witness at his second wedding.

After living a year in St. Louis, Lisa took Mary with him for the winter of 1819-1820 to Fort Lisa in Nebraska (Mary Lisa reportedly became the first woman of European descent to travel so far up the Missouri River). When he and Mary arrived, Lisa sent his second wife Mitain away from the fort.

By the time of his 1819 expedition, Lisa had developed strong relationships with the Omaha, Ponca, Yankton and Teton Sioux, Mandan and Arikara peoples. He was instrumental in extending the "commercial outreach of St. Louis" to the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers and to tribes previously more under British influence. By 1829 the Missouri Fur Company had invested capital of about $10,000, highest among the local firms.

Although Lisa returned to St. Louis in good health in April 1820, he soon became ill. The unidentified illness caused his death at Sulphur Springs (now within the city of St. Louis) on August 12, 1820. He was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery at the Hempstead family plot. Although his will provided for $2000 for each of his children upon reaching adulthood (including those by Mitain), there is no evidence that they received any money. The historian Chittenden believed Lisa left few assets to his estate.

After his death, Joshua Pilcher led the Missouri Fur Company to do business under various names until about 1830. By 1830, John Jacob Astor had gained a monopoly with his American Fur Company. As the fur trade had been declining overall with changes in taste, Pilcher dissolved the Missouri Fur Company.