William Sublette

William Lewis Sublette also spelled Sublett (September 21 1798 - July 23 1845), was a pioneer, frontiersman, trapper, fur trader, explorer, and mountain man, who, with his four brothers, after 1823, became an agent of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and later, one of its co-owners, exploiting the riches of the Oregon Country, which helped settle and improve the best routes, along the Oregon Trail.

Early life

William Sublette was born near Stamford, Lincoln County, Kentucky. He was one of five Sublette brothers, prominent in the western fur trade: William, Milton, Andrew, Pinkney, and Solomon.

Into the fur trade

Sublette was one of the key leaders among the American mountain men, pushing hard into disputed territory, held by the dominant, joint British-Canadian fur companies; the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, and against their chief rival, the American Fur Company trappers, who were also in the high Rockies and the Unorganized Territory of the western United States.