Salish people learned about Christianity and the Jesuit missionaries (known as "blackrobes"), who worked with Native tribes teaching about agriculture, medicine, and religion. Interest in these "blackrobes" grew among the Salish. In 1831, four young Salish men were dispatched to St. Louis, Missouri to request a "blackrobe" to return with them to their homeland in the Bitterroot Valley. The four Salish men were directed to the home and office of William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) to make their request. At that time Clark was in charge of administering the territory they called home. Through the perils of their trip, two died at the home of General Clark. The remaining two secured a visit with St. Louis Bishop Joseph Rosati, who assured them that missionaries would be sent to the Bitterroot Valley when funds and missionaries were available in the future. Again in 1835 and 1837 the Salish people dispatched men to St. Louis to request missionaries but to no avail. Finally in 1839 a group of Iroquois and Salish met Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The meeting resulted in Father DeSmet promising to fulfill their request for a missionary the following year. DeSmet arrived in present-day Stevensville on September 24, 1841, and called the settlement St. Mary's Mission. Construction of a chapel immediately began, followed by other permanent structures including log cabins and Montana's first pharmacy. In 1850 Major John Owen arrived in the valley and set up camp north of St. Mary's. In time, Major Owen established a trading post and military strong point named Fort Owen, which served the Native people, settlers, and missionaries in the valley. Military history Fort Benton The first permanent settlement in Montana was Fort Benton, established as a fur trading post in 1847. It was named in honor of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, who encouraged settlement of the West. The U.S. Army took over the commercial fort in 1869 and a detachment of the 7th Infantry remained in the town until 1881. Its location on the Missouri River marked the farthest practical point upriver that steamboats could navigate. With the arrival of the first steamboats in 1860, the town of Fort Benton began to develop outside the fort's walls and developed into a major trading center over the next 27 years, until it was supplanted with the arrival of railroads in the Montana Territory. An original blockhouse still remaining