François Xavier Aubry
American explorer (1824-1854)
François Xavier Aubry (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa ɡzavje obʁi]; December 3, 1824 – August 18, 1854) was a French Canadian merchant and explorer of the American Southwest. His achievements include speed records riding the Santa Fe Trail and early exploration of the 35th parallel north west of the North American continental divide.
Youth and early ventures
Aubry was born to Joseph and Magdeleine (Lupien) Aubry in Saint-Justin, Quebec on December 3, 1824. There he grew up on a farm. When he was 18, he moved to St. Louis where he worked as a store clerk. After seeing the profits available for merchants transporting goods along the Santa Fe Trail, Aubry saved his money to purchase several wagons and draft animals. He then obtained a line of credit with which to purchase trade goods and left on his first trip down Santa Fe trail from Independence on May 9, 1846 as part of a trader's caravan. After selling his goods in Santa Fe, Aubry returned with enough profits to fully pay off his loans. In 1847 he moved to Independence, Missouri and began working full-time as a freighter along the trail.
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This entry incorporates text from “François Xavier Aubry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.