Robert Campbell immigrated to the United States in 1823 from Scotland. In 1825 Campbell joined a trapping expedition for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, the firm that would revolutionize the fur trade with a business innovation ? the Rendezvous. In 1930 Campbell and William Sublette started Campbell & Sublette, a competitor to the American Fur Company, which was owned by the Chouteaus, one of the founding families of St. Louis. When he retired from the mountains in 1835, Campbell settled in St. Louis and began investing in interests in the western United States including real estate, dry goods, railroads, steamships, and a gold mine in New Mexico. His mercantile which outfitted settlers heading west stood where the Arch is today. When Campbell died in 1879, he was considered the wealthiest man in Missouri.
