"Trading house for the Omahaws." P. Sarpy, Belle Vue. May 16, 1851. From the journal of Swiss artist Rudolph Freiderich Kurtz of Bern. From 1846-1852, Kurtz toured the western trading posts of the great fur companies of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Source - Smithsonian Journal of the Bureau of Ethnographic Research, 1936.

Sarpy probably came to the Nebraska Territory in 1823 to work at the American Fur Company's trading post near Bellevue. He was employed by his brother's father-in-law, John P. Cabanne. Some time later he established a trading post for white traders on the Iowa side of the Missouri River, and he named it the "Trader's Post." The post at Bellevue mainly served the Indians.

Peter A. Sarpy. Source - NSHS, RG12292_1.

In October of 1832, he was involved in an illegal seizure of a keelboat belonging to a company in competition with the American Fur Company. He and some other employees of the American Company were ordered to seize the keelboat by John P. Cabanne. By June of 1833, Cabanne and Sarpy were ordered out of the Indian Territory as a result of the affair. But, both men were notified they could return if they applied for a permit from the superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis. Pilcher was then hired to replace Cabanne in 1833. His tenure at Council Bluffs was brief, and in 1835 he left to accept a position in the Office of Indian Affairs at an agency on the upper Missouri. Pilcher's replacement was Sarpy.

According to Henry Fontenelle, Lucien's son, Peter A. Sarpy occupied Lucien's trading post in 1840. By 1842, Bellevue was experiencing a period of relative calm. The fur trade was on the decline, and the days when Bellevue served as the "jumping off place" for the trappers bound for the Rockies were gone. Yet like the Phoenix which rose from its ashes, Bellevue once again achieved prominence in the latter half of the decade with the arrival of Mormon immigrants and other settlers bound for Oregon and California.

Sarpy started a ferrying business across the Missouri between Bellevue and St. Mary's on the Iowa side. In 1847 he ferried the Mormons across the Missouri, helped supply them with food and clothing for the winter, and the following spring helped outfit them for the remainder of their travels. During the gold rush years, Sarpy's ferryboats hauled many of the would-be gold miners across the Missouri.

Sarpy became a leader in both commerce and politics for more than twenty years. He helped establish a post office and along with others in the Old Town Company, laid out the town of Bellevue.

He was married to Ni-co-mi, an Omaha Indian woman, and the Omaha Tribe gave him the title "White Chief." He moved to Plattsmouth in 1862, and died there in 1865. Sarpy County was named in his honor.

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