Ceaseless Propaganda

One of California's most ardent supporters against Mexican rule was a Harvard graduate and self proclaimed doctor named John Marsh.  Marsh arrived from Missouri and became successful in Los Angeles before buying a large tract of land in the San Joaquin Valley in the 1830s. (see his house in left photo!) He believed that American migration would increase the value of his property so much that he began a campaign to convince his friends in Independence about the perfect life in California.

The town's newspapers picked up the story and began to tell of how California was the life for any farmer tired of low prices and high debts.  According to the Marsh's stories, no man need to stoop to manual labor out in California when the Indians could do it for little or no pay.  He wrote, "the only thing we lack here is a good Government.  What we want most is more people.  If we had 50 families we could do exactly as we please without any fear of being troubled."  (California was still under Mexican rule.)

Marsh's propaganda about the "good life" in California was supplemented by sailor and writer Richard Henry Dana, by explorers Joseph Walker, Jed Smith, and James Ohio Pattie.  By 1814 these men had turned a tiny group of traders and merchants into a steady overland migration of farm families from Missouri to California.

By 1842 Monterey, for example, was a small but prosperous shipping center for American hide buyers. Richard Dana called Monterey, "the  most civilized  looking place in California" in 1840.
Some of that original "civilization" stood well into the 20th century...California's first theater, American consul's house, court house, and the royal presidio chapel (which is still standing and the only presidio chapel still in existence in California).

Next time...Ranch life in California
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On November 28, 1520, after sailing through the dangerous straits below South America that now bear his name, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic

Joseph Reddeford Walker

With his good looks and plumed hat and 6' stature, Joe Walker was the romantic stereotype of the mountain man.  His escapades with ladies were legendary - so was his knowledge of the West.

Walker operated as trapper and trader out of Independence, Missouri for 12 years, was sheriff of Jackson County until a promise of waters rich in beaver, wine and women lured him on an expedition to California in 1833.  Walker understood the ways of the Indian, was kind and affable to men, and loved to explore unknown regions.

From Salt Lake down the Humboldt River, over the Sierras near Yosemite and reaching the Pacific Coast, Walker covered most of the West.  In 1833 he discovered Walker Pass in the San Joaquin Valley.  Walker Pass provided an easy wagon train trail around the south end of Sierra Nevada. In 1869 the transcontinental railroad would follow the Humboldt River route.

After Joe married an Indian chief's daughter who was lost (along with is children) to cholera, his career would span 47 years as a trapper, trader and guide.  He advised wagon trains to California, bought and sold cattle and led gold prospecting parties to California and Colorado. 

His lists of "firsts" equals and surpasses Jedediah Smith's in the discovery of the West.

When his eyesight began failing, he retired to his ranch in California where he died at the age of 78.  For more in depth on Joseph Walker - search this blog...we have followed him from his birth through his life. 

Next time...Trapper Wives
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Today in Pioneer History: On April 7, 1805 after a long winter, the Lewis and Clark expedition departs its camp among the Mandan Indians and resumes its journey West along the Missouri River.

The Victory Lap

In the summer of 1867, Captain Joseph Walker made his final trip, traveling through the Grand Canyon and La Paz, a river port on the Colorado.  He stopped for supplies and food for the mules,
paid for with what Walker's bad eyes thought was a silver dollar but later turned out he gave the Indian a $20 gold piece.  He went in search of the Indian and his change.  When he found him, he also discovered he knew him from the Apache days and the Indian returned the coin saying he would never cheat Captain Walker.  Quite a tribute to the man Captain Joseph Walker was. 


Even with his poor vision, his instincts never failed him.  From Colorado, Walker continued westward through the Mojave, following trails he no longer could see clearly but knew by instinct.  He arrived home for the last time in the fall of 1867. 

Next time...The Final Interview

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This Day in History:  Oh February 2. 1812, Russians establish Fort Ross on the coast north of San Francisco, staking a tenuous claim to the riches of the Far West.
 

Walker and Bonneville - a Perfect Fit

Joseph Walker and Benjamin Bonneville met at Fort Gibson in 1830.  Both knew Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston so they had an immediate topic of conversation between them

Walker was looking for an expedition to explore unknown parts of the West and Bonneville was looking for a man who could lead him through the Rockies, and recruit and manage a team of fur trappers....Kirk and Spock circa 1830??

Walker's good instincts told him this was more than just a fur trading expedition.  Bonneville knew a good man for the job when he met one, so the deal was made.

Off to the Rockies these two new friends went...next time.

A Man of Many Means - But One Dream

Being sheriff was part-time in frontier Missouri, so Walker traded hogs, whiskey and horses.  Horses were $30-$40 each at that time in Missouri.  Joe however found a profitable goldmine -  with military officers stationed in isolated posts throughout Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, Joe found they would pay $100-$`150 per horse in good condition.  Three times what the going rate was for horses.

Walker was never really a trapper by trade, except during the Taos trapper period.  It was tedious and hard work spending spring and fall season in icy streams and winters cleaning and curing hides.  Walker didn't want that kind of life, he wanted to be a guide, a trailblazer like a private "Lewis and Clark".  That took sufficient men and provisions and the freedom to travel and live in unsettled, unpopulated country.

The time finally came in 1830 when Walker was just 32 years old ...but first it's time to meet a new man in the whole scheme of things, one Benjamin Bonneville.

Next time...

Keeping the Peace

Joe Walker only held the post of sheriff in Jackson County for a year and a half after which he had had enough of living in routine society and declined re-election.  While he was in office though, he summoned and paid the expenses of the jurors, witnesses and managed the local jail which was a log building constructed in 1827 at the cost of $150.

During Walker's time as sheriff he held one cattle and 2 horse thieves in custody.  Rustling was the most common crime at that time.

Walker maintained courtroom order and considering trials were regarded as social entertainment - it wasn't easy.  There were competitive - with observers rooting for their favorites.  Today you could compare it to a sporting event.

A year after Joe left the community and his job as sheriff, the town had its first murder.  There was a Mormon-Scotch Irish feud going on.  The Mormons called the Scotch-Irish "Missouri pukes" and well...the murderers were beaten and tossed out of town.

No wonder Walker wanted to move on!

America's Drinking Problem

Joe O'Conner was probably one of the most troublesome people in Jackson County while Walker was sheriff.  He was frequently drunk and disorderly, assultive and sort of like Otis on the Andy Griffith Show, but with a temper which later in life turned him into a real nasty badman.  During Walker's stint as Sheriff though, O'Conner was mostly a nuisance who spent most of his nights in the county jail.

By 1830 the annual consumption of hard liquor in the United States was 5 gallons per person, triple was it is today.  Water and milk were considered contaminated and unhealthy to drink.  Coffee and tea were acceptable, but tea was too British for a generation once removed from the war. Corn whiskey was considered good for you and safe, plentiful and cheap.  Farmers found it easier and more profitable to distill their own and transport it.  Americans drank morning, noon and night - judges were drunk on the bench, preachers were drunk in the pulpit, laborers lost days of work to drunkenness.  Liver damage, dyspepsia and delirium treatment were common illnesses.

Walker was not a teetotaler by any means - but never a drunk.  Most likely Joe enjoyed drinking socially and after a hard day at the office.

Next time...Keeping the Peace

Sheriff Joe Walker

As the new sheriff in Jackson County, Walked was never a "braggert, always soft-spoken, yet capable of maintaining discipline" states the historical records.

Stories circulated later that Walker was the first of the gunslinger western sheriffs before Earp, Hickock, and others.  During his term, 33 criminal cases were tried in Jackson circuit court, none involving guns, hand to hand combat only.

The weapon of choice at that time was a knife - one named after Jim Bowie of Arkansas who didn't invent it as legend leads us to believe, but could wield it like no one else ever could.  The new hatchet was considered more manly than a gun - especially fighting Comanche or a grizzly bear.  Following the Civil War, the six-shooter offered better opportunities to murder opponents - if you afford one. and knew how to use it.  Unlike the movies,  the six-shooters weren't your ordinary man's weapon.

By the time Joe became sheriff he was 29 years old and had been living and traveling the rough road for 10 years already.  Chances were slim that anyone got the best of Sheriff Walker.  No records exist of him actually having to overpower anyone, but people knew he could and that was enough in those days.  Only three times in his entire life was he ever confronted physically and all three men backed up before it came to violence.  That is respect.

Next time ...some of Sheriff Walkers cases

Jackson County, Missouri

Abraham McClellan who was a pioneer entrepreneur and politician, was also a relative of the Walkers. He represented the pioneer type who came west largely for economic self-interest, being affluent back East.

McClellan had become the Franklin Missouri blacksmith, built a tavern and a distillery, and claimed that all three of his businesses complimented each other.

In 1826, the Missouri legislature created a new county - Jackson County, named after of course, Andrew Jackson.  It included the area now occupied by both Independence and Kansas City.  In 1827, Joe Walker became Jackson County's first sheriff and McClellan became its first president.

Next time...Walker as a lawman

The Road to Santa Fe

On July 1823, the survey party began working their way across Kansas.  They had no means to make signs to mark their path through the short grass of the flat plains, so they mounded up piles of dirt and rock to mark special points and directions.

150 miles out from Fort Osage they stopped to rest under the last sizable grove of trees, which came to be known as "Council Grove".  Crazy Bill Williams brought 50 Osage chiefs and warriors to the camp for a 4 day negotiation session.  A treaty was signed which gave the men permission for the trail to pass through Osage territory unmolested for $800 worth of goods.

Within a week the team had left Council Grove and Williams again brought the leaders of the Kansas tribe to sign the same treaty.  On September 11, they continued on to the Arkansas River, stopping for 3 weeks (public affairs in those days were done casually and slowly).

It was during this three week period that someone pointed out that they needed Mexico's permission since most of the trip would run through their territory, so the request was sent to Washington and the Mexicans.  It took almost 9 months for an agreement to come from Washington and Mexico which by that time was too late.

Most of those interested in the Santa Fe Road project and they who were financing the work, were no longer interested. Sibley and Williams had left for New Mexico, and by next summer when the men tried to resurrect the project, but the dirt market by then had begun to erode away and the project was deemed insignificant .

Years later Walker commented that though they had not built a true road to Santa Fe or made the trail more convenient, they at least "broke the crust"...

Three for the Money!

The third Santa Fe Expedition of which Walker took part was led by William Becknell, a ferryboat operator and manager of the salt lick in Boonslick Country, Missouri.  The party left in September and reached Santa Fe in November, just when the Mexicans were celebrating their independence from the Spanish.

The Mexicans invited Beckwell to trade with them and they did so well that when they returned to Missouri in February 1822 (after a winter of blizzards and high winds) they untied their saddles, throwing them down and letting 10,000 Mexican silver dollars roll around on the main street of Franklin, Missouri.  One woman who had invested $60  in their venture, got a return of $900...not too shabby!

It is suspected that the lost journals of Walker's recorded this journey but there is no proof.  The following year is unknown in Walker's life but in 1823 he made his personal entrance into recorded history - and what a doosie it was!

Next time - the economy takes a dive

Jailbirds in New Mexico

Joe did go to New Mexico where he and his buddies were intercepted by the Spanish military and put into jail.  They were released only when they promised to go back directly to the United States territory.  It is believed that Joe never meant to leave New Mexico territory - but to just retreat far enough back into the mountains to elude the Spanish police.

Joe became a member of the Taos trappers which were named after a mountain village in New Mexico where they hid out from the Spanish authorities. The Taos trappers were instrumental in opening both the Santa Fe trail and the American fur trade in the Rockies.

There is little record of their activity or whereabouts because the Taos trappers were a secret bunch.  Once they left Missouri westward, they were no longer considered United State citizens and received no protection from the government.  In fact, in essence, they became illegal aliens when they crossed the Spanish-Mexican boundary.  Walker and his men were now fugitives, smugglers and dealers in contraband!

Next time...some notorious trapper stories

Forward to Missouri

Next time we meet Joe Walker is on the first steamboat up the Missouri into the western part of the state in 1819.  The "Independence" reached Franklin and Council Bluffs in that same year.


It is believed that Joe went ahead of his family to scout out the area for a new family settlement as most men of families did at that time.  The Walkers had traveled the Kentucky turnpike, followed the Ohio Valley from Tennessee toward Mississippi without stopping to hunt.  Buffalo and elk were long gone from the eastern woodlands and even deer was scarce. 

Travel was tedious and uncomfortable but no longer a danger from Indian attacks.  The roads were barely roads - full of stumps and rocks.  Even the ferries at the river crossing were not a pleasure ride with leaking and unstable vessels.  Traveling west was anything but a vacation!

Next time - The Great Migration...

The Scotch-Irish Walkers

Joseph Walker was born in the 1798 into three generations of Scotch-Irish Appalachian Settlers.  His great-grandfather and great-grandmother, John and Katerine Walker, arrived in America and settled in the Great Valley in the Appalachians, naming their family settlement "Creek Nation".  

Situated under Jump Mountain, all the Walker family and relatives lived in the same area as pioneers tended to do.  The climate was good and the land was fertile.  The Walkers planted corn in the clearing of the dense forests.  Corn was relatively easy to grow and could be used for a variety of uses from corn whiskey to sell, corn husks as animals fodder, to parching kernels for storage.

Note: Jump Mountain was so named for a Cherokee maiden who leaped off the mountain in an effort to save her Shawnee lover from her family's vengeance.  It is not known whether it changed any opinions or feelings...

A Handsome Pioneer

Standing 6'2" and weighing 200 pounds, Joseph Walker was remarkably handsome, but it was his kindness, modesty, courtesy, elegance, and wilderness skills that gained him his reputation.

Joe was a peacemaker who lived with Indians and had the rapport to address any injustice he saw between the white man and the Indian.

In describing Walker, historian John McBride said, "His dress was a marvel of adaption to his business - rich and simple, buckskin throughout.  A loose fitting coat and pants, richly ornamented with threads of silver and gold wire made by hand, a broad sombrero to keep off the sun.  Mounted on a noble looking roan horse of Spanish blood, on a Mexican saddle, with spurs whose rowels were 6" in diameter of polished steel plated with gold at his heels, with a rifle across his saddle bow...he seemed born to rule the wild spirits around him without effort and they acknowledged him as their leader without controversy."

Walker never publish his memoirs or commented in interviews, and although he did keep an exact journal for some years, he lived a decent, principled life which only men of great strength and confidence can sustain.  Walker had a distaste for what we now call "tabloid or sensational journalism"

Next time - back to the 1700s West Virginia where it all began...

Meet Joseph Walker

Joseph Walker was one of the first mountain men, fur trappers and traders in the West.  Characteristic of mountain men, he possessed common sense, bravery, the ability to shoot straight, ride hard, fight ferociously, and the ability to bear up and function during formidable hardship.

Joe Walker, aka Captain Joe, was a leader of those to come behind - he taught Kit Carson, when Kit was a greenhorn of the West.  Among Walker's important life achievements:

*1825 - guided a government party which surveyed and marked the Santa Fe Trail

*1827 - one of the founders and first sheriff of Independence, Missouri

*1833 - led the first Americans to the Pacific Ocean through the unknown and uncharted Sierras

*1833 - first white man to see Yosemite

*1843 - guided the first wagon train to California territory

*1860s - Led a party of American into central Arizona through Apache land to Prescott gold fields

Only one man is reported to have died following Walker in 50 years - and that was said to be because the man didn't follow Joe's warning.

Note:  Most of my information about Joseph Walker used in the next few months comes from a book The Westering Man - the Life of Joseph Walker, by Bill Gilbert in 1983.  Visit your public library, grab a copy and read along. It is an amazing book about an amazing man of pioneer history!  ''

Next time - a physically handsome pioneer!