Joseph Robidoux IV

Joseph Robidoux IV (1783–1868), was an American fur trader credited as the founder of St. Joseph, Missouri, which developed around his Blacksnake Hills Trading Post.^[1] His buildings in St. Joseph, known as Robidoux Row, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Of French Canadian descent, he was born in St. Louis, as were his mother and most of his brothers, when it was a predominately French-speaking colonial town.

After he established his trading post on the Missouri River, it (and the later St. Joseph), became a center for his family enterprise of fur trading. He operated it with his five brothers along the Mississippi and especially the Missouri River systems.