Name Felix Vrain | Died May 24, 1832 | |
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Felix St. Vrain, born Felix August Antoine St. Vrain (March 23, 1799–May 24, 1832), was the brother of St. Louis fur trader, Ceran St. Vrain, who was the trading partner, of the Bent Brothers of, Bent's Fort, now La Junta, Otero County, Colorado, and a United States Indian agent who was killed during the Black Hawk War. St. Vrain died along with three companions while on a mission to deliver dispatches from Dixon's Ferry, Illinois to Fort Armstrong. The incident has become known as the St. Vrain massacre.
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Early life
Felix St. Vrain was born in St. Louis, Missouri, a son of Jacques DeHault Delassus de St. Vrain. He married Marie Pauline Gregoire in 1822, and eight years later settled in Kaskaskia, Illinois. A sawmill operator in Kaskaskia, St. Vrain was 31 years old when he was appointed to replace Thomas Forsyth as an Indian agent.
U.S. Indian agent
St. Vrain started working for the United States government as an Indian Agent in 1830. He was assigned to the Sauk and Fox nations around Rock Island during William Clark's tenure as superintendent of the St. Louis Indian Agency. St. Vrain's appointment came amidst Forsyth's ongoing criticism of William Clark. St. Vrain had almost no experience dealing with Indians but being a member of a politically important St. Louis-French family he had connections to U.S. Senator Elias Kent Kane. Kane was a close acquaintance of William Clark and recommended St. Vrain for the appointment.
Black Hawk War and St. Vrain Massacre
When the Black Hawk War began, St. Vrain was stationed at Fort Armstrong. The story circulated upon his death by Governor John Reynolds was that St. Vrain was keenly in tune with Indian culture and was treacherously murdered by a chief who had adopted him as a brother Little Bear. This story is almost certainly not true.
While on a mission to deliver dispatches, from Dixon's Ferry, present-day Dixon, Illinois to Galena, under the command of General Henry Atkinson, Felix St. Vrain was killed, along with three other members of his party, on May 24, 1832, which came to be known later, as the "St. Vrain Massacre". The St. Vrain party were most likely attacked by a band of pro-Sauk Ho-Chunk warriors, though sources disagree over the attacker's tribe.
St. Vrain and the other victims were buried by a detachment of soldiers under Colonel Henry Dodge. One account of the massacre, from Gen. George W. Jones (St. Vrain's brother-in-law as well as the man who identified the body), claimed the attackers scalped all of the dead men, and cut off the hands, head and feet of St. Vrain. They then removed his heart, which they ate. The victims' graves are located in Kellogg's Grove. In 1834 (either January 6 or March 24) the U.S. Congress passed a bill which provided relief for St. Vrain's family. The Congressional relief was in the form a 640-acre land grant in the state of Missouri.