Benjamin O’Fallon (1793–1842)

Prominent in Missouri as an Indian agent and advocate of the American fur-trade interests in the 1820s, Benjamin O’Fallon was generally forgotten after his retirement from public life. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on September 20, 1793. His mother, Frances “Fanny” Clark O’Fallon, was the youngest sister of George Rogers Clark and William Clark. His father, James, came from Ireland in 1774 and served through the Revolutionary War as a surgeon in Washington’s army. In 1789 the senior O’Fallon came west as a general agent for the South Carolina Yazoo Land Company and lived in St. Louis for a time while pursuing schemes with Spanish officials, French agents, and Kentucky and Carolina adventurers. Moving to Kentucky, he allied himself through marriage to the prestigious Clark family in 1791. His first son, John O’Fallon, was born that November. When James O’Fallon died a few months after the birth of his second child, Benjamin, the two boys remained with their mother’s family. By 1807 William Clark had assumed formal guardianship of his nephews.

In 1808 Clark brought Benjamin to live with him in St. Louis. Undisciplined and volatile, with chronic ill health, the boy showed little promise for a future career despite the aid of his powerful uncle, then an Indian agent and soon the territorial governor of Missouri. Clark hoped to establish his nephew as a merchant in St. Louis.

In 1813 O’Fallon and James Kennerly (cousin of Clark’s first wife, brother to the second Mrs. Clark) joined in a short-lived partnership selling pork, beef, and flour in the city. In 1814 Clark appointed O’Fallon as contractor to supply his military expedition to Prairie du Chien.

In 1815, with Clark’s assistance, O’Fallon built sawmills and gristmills north of St. Louis. He quickly tired of his new career, however, and sold his mills in 1816 to try his luck as an Indian trader on the upper Mississippi. Hoping for the best, Clark appointed his nephew as special agent for the Sioux and neighboring tribes. Clark’s continuing efforts finally won O’Fallon a regular appointment as subagent for the upper Missouri River in 1818. In 1819 O’Fallon was confirmed as an Indian agent for the Missouri River tribes, to accompany General Henry Atkinson’s Yellowstone expedition.

Through 1819 and 1820 O’Fallon held councils with the Kansa, Missouri, Oto, Omaha, Ioway, and Pawnee tribes. He quarreled with Atkinson over policy in dealing with the Native Americans and the relative authority of military commander and Indian agent. O’Fallon’s own policy was clearly defined: he believed it necessary to impress the independent tribes with the power of the US government through a show of force and firmness in negotiations. He was preoccupied with countering the British threat, real or perceived, to the northern frontier, and was a particular foe of British fur traders found on the American side of the border. The fur trade, in his view, would be the agent of national sovereignty along the upper Missouri.

O’Fallon’s quarrel with the military broke out afresh after Colonel Henry Leavenworth’s 1823 Arikara campaign, and he freely aired his case in the public press. Earlier support for the efforts of Thomas Hart Benton and others to abolish the factory system of government-operated trading posts had enhanced O’Fallon’s standing among the St. Louis traders: he was now widely recognized as a leading advocate of American traders’ rights, and of aggressive measures against British infiltration of the northern frontier.

In 1825, O’Fallon accompanied Atkinson’s second Yellowstone expedition to meet with the tribes between Council Bluffs and the mouth of the Yellowstone. For some bands this was the first contact with representatives of the US government. The councils asserted American control of the region, bolstered the confidence of American fur traders, and weakened the position of the British traders among the tribes. Again, however, O’Fallon and Atkinson quarreled violently over policy and respective authority.

In the end, O’Fallon had to abandon the field. Since youth, chronic problems with spleen, liver, and bowels had plagued him. Bad health incapacitated him through much of 1824. The arduous 1825 trip further undermined his health, and he returned to St. Louis dangerously ill. To the burden of poor health was added growing family responsibilities. For years relatives had urged him to marry, hoping a good wife would steady and calm his temper. In 1823 he finally took their advice and married Sophia Lee, the daughter of St. Louis auctioneer Patrick Lee. Eventually the couple had eight children, too large a family to support adequately on an Indian agent’s salary.

O’Fallon resigned his commission in December 1826 and retired to a small plantation near St. Louis. He built a gristmill and erratically pursued other sources of income, but unlike his wealthy brother, John, Benjamin O’Fallon had no talent for making money. He continued to write letters and work for government action on his favorite causes: a hard line against British influence from Canada and support for American fur interests. He maintained close ties with the American Fur Company, and though poor health precluded seeking office for himself, he was active in politics. Befriended by Andrew Jackson during a trip to Washington, DC, in 1819, O’Fallon remained an ardent supporter of Jackson throughout his life. O’Fallon’s health declined steadily through the 1830s; he died on December 17, 1842.

Benjamin’s brother, John, was also prominent in Missouri affairs, and the two were often confused by later writers. Contemporaries normally referred to Benjamin as “Mr. O’Fallon” until 1819, when appointment as an Indian agent conferred the honorary rank of major. Thereafter he was always “Major O’ Fallon.” John came to Missouri as “Captain O’Fallon” in 1817. In December 1820 he awarded himself the title of colonel, and was addressed as “Colonel O’Fallon” from that time onward.

This article was first published in Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer, and Kenneth H. Winn, eds., Dictionary of Missouri Biography (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999), and appears here by permission of the author and original publisher.