John Charles Fremont

We have discussed John Charles Fremont before in this blog but we will go into a bit more detail this time in context.  Fremont was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1813.  In 1818 his mother, brother and sister moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he grew up in genteel poverty

Fremont developed into a handsome young man who had a real love of danger, a flair for self-dramatization and a talent for attracting influential friends.  One of these friends paid for much of Fremont's education.  At the age of 25, Charles became a second lieutenant in the US Topographical Corps where he gained a reputation as a wilderness surveyor and mapmaker. 

As a young officer, Fremont attracted the attention of Thomas Hart Benton, one of the most powerful men in American politics at that time.  Fremont met Benton's 15 year old daughter, Jesse and the two fell in love.  Despite the parents very impassioned objections, they were married secretly in the fall of 1846. 
Benton forgave his new son-in-law and became his patron and protector, getting him an appointment as chief of an expedition map the new Oregon Trail.

Fremont had two main objectives in 1842.  One was to make the first accurate map of the Oregon Trail.  The second was to promote westward emigration.  He was joined on his expedition by a famous legendary frontiersman, Kit Carson.

Next time...on the trail with Carson and Fremont
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Today in Pioneer History:  On March 23, 1839, the initials "O.K." are first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for "oll korrect," a popular slang misspelling of "all correct" at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans.

The Fated Donner Party

Elisha Stephens who brought the first wagon train across the Sierras via the Truckee Pass in 1844, inspired other to try to do the same.  One such man, George Donner 62, his brother Jacob, 65, and James Reed set out from Independence, Missouri in May 1846.  A large party from the onset, they added others along the way until they came to the Little Sandy River (Wyoming) where they decided to split into two trains.  One went to California along the Fort Hall route without problems.  The Donner party of 89 people decided on a shortcut from a guidebook they had read by Lansford Hastings.

Hastings' cutoff was certainly 400 miles shorter than the California Trail, but it was more hazardous and look longer.  By the time they reached the Sierras, it was late October and the snows were already beginning in the Truckee Pass (renamed Donner Pass). 

The party dug in for the winter.  Supplies gave out.  Seventeen men, women, and boys were sent westward to scout out relief expeditions in the snowed-in mountains.  Those left behind slowly starved.  By the time the survivors of the scouting party reached help, their fellow pioneers left behind had eaten all the livestock and pets.  When the first of the rescue teams reached them in February 1847, some of the pioneers had gone mad, others were dead, and a few were dying and too weak to move.  And some had survived by eating the corpses of their deceased fellow travelers.  It was a gruesome sight.

In all, 45 of the Donner Party perished in the Sierras that winter, including George Donner and his wife Tamson who refused to leave her dying husband when the rescue party arrived.  Most of the survivors recovered remarkably well, even urging their friends back east to come join them but with a warning:  "Never take no cut ofs and hury along as fast as you can." 

Yes I guess you take the long road home in this case!

Next time...James Reed and Family's Survival Story
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On March 6, 1889, the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin registers Aspirin, the brand name for acetylsalicylic acid, on behalf of the German pharmaceutical company Friedrich Bayer & Co.

On the Trail from Dawn to Dusk - Part 3

Jesse Applegate (photo) concludes his story of night time on the Oregon Trail...

"Everyone is busy preparing fires of buffalo chips to cook the evening meal, pitching tents and otherwise preparing for the night.  All able to bear arms in the party have been formed into three companies and each of these into four watches.  Every third night it is the duty of one of these companies to keep watch and ward over the camp.  It is not yet eight o'clock when the first watch is to be set. 

The evening meal is just over, and the corral now free from the intrusion of the cattle or horses, and groups of children are scattered over it.  Before a tent near the river a violin makes lively music, and some youths and maidens have improvised a dance upon the green.

It has been a prosperous day, more than 20 miles have been accomplished of the great journey.  The encampment is a good one.  But time passes.  The violin is silent and the dancers have dispersed.  Enamored youth have whispered a tender good night in the ears of blushing maidens, or stolen a kiss from the lips of some future bride - for cupid here as elsewhere have been busy bringing hearts together."

Sadly, that is the end of Jesse's story.  Don't you wish we could follow them to the end of their journey?

Next time...The Trail of Hardships
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Today in Pioneer History: "On February 17, 1820, The Senate passes the Missouri Compromise, an attempt to deal with the dangerously divisive issue of extending slavery into the western territories.

A Seed is Planted

Hall Jackson Kelley's propaganda had planted a seed in the American mind that would eventually blossom into the great western migration of the 1800s.  The seed took root in the mind of Nathaniel Wyeth of Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Wyeth was in the ice business and one of Kelley's earliest supporters.  A young man of energy and determination, he though he might reap a fortune in the vast Oregon wilderness.

By 1831, Wyeth had formed a stock company with 30 others who shared his vision. He gathered a group of men for the expedition to Oregon Country across land, while a supply ship would sail around Cape Horn and meet them on the Pacific Coast.  No specific purpose for the venture was outlined, but they intended to find "opportunities."

In the spring of 1832, Wyeth's party of 24, reached Independence, Missouri.  In October they arrived at Fort Vancouver - the first party of westbound Americans to travel what would become known as "the Oregon Trail".

The news upon arrival was not good.  The supply ship was lost.  The rest of Wyeth's party, dissolved the stock firm and most of them went back home to Massachusetts and were never heard from again.  One man, John Bell, decided to remain in the Oregon Country to teach Indian wives and children of French Canadian trappers.  Two other men, Solomon Smith and Charles Tibbets became farmers in the Willamette Valley, joining a small group of retired Hudson Bay employees. These men were the first American "residents" in Oregon Country.

Wyeth, meanwhile, still dreamed of wealth.  He organized a second expedition which also ended in failure, but it bore fruit.  Several missionaries who were with Wyeth in 1834, believed they were answering a call, not only from God, but from the Indians themselves.

The story goes...back in 1831, three Nez Perce and one Flathead Indian had accompanied a fur caravan to St. Louis.  People had never seen Indians like these before and it created quite a stir.  Rumors started that the Indians had come to recruit missionaries for the salvation of their people's souls.  It was published in the national Methodist magazine and read from 100s of pulpits, generating 1000s of dollars for missions to the Northwest to save Indian souls!

Next time - Jason Lee hears the call
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Today in Pioneer History:  On December 30, 1853, for the price of $15 million, later reduced to $10 million, the United States acquired approximately 30,000 square miles of land in what is now southern New Mexico and Arizona thereby establishing the southern US boundary.

The Quintessential Mountain Man

Jim Bridger was the epitome of the hardy mountain man.  As a child he went from Virginia to the

frontier city of St. Louis with his family.  At 13 he was apprenticed as a blacksmith.  At 19 he became a member of William Henry Ashley's first expedition to the Rockies.  He was a quick learner, tall and with a keen eye.  Although he became a legend as an Indian fighter, he tried to get along with the Indians.  He had three Indian wives, each from a different tribe and each died young.

Bridger's friends called him "Gabe".  He was notorious for his tall tales, but many of his tales were based on real events.  Once he floated down the Bear River to settle a bet on the direction the river flowed, ending in Great Salt Lake (probably the first white man to see it).  Due to the salty water, he believed he was on the Pacific Coast.

Most of Bridger's maps were the most accurate of maps available.  Although he was illiterate, he spoke French, Spanish and several Indian languages. 

He roamed the Rockies as a trapper, trader and eventual partner in a fur company.  In 1843 he built a fort on the Oregon Trail where he sold supplies, did repair work, and gave advice to travelers.  For 10 years he was successful until a raid by the Mormon vigilantes destroyed the fort.  Bridger moved his family to a Missouri farm, came back alone to the West as a guide.  He was a scout for the U.S. Army in the "Mormon War". In 1866 he marked the Bozeman Trail from Nebraska to the Montana gold mines.

Bridger was disabled by arthritis and failing eyesight when he retired in 1867.  By then the coming of the railroads saw the end of the West that Bridger so loved.

Next time...Life in the wild
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Today in Pioneer History:  On  March 28, 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza, one of the great western pathfinders of the 18th century, arrives at the future site of San Francisco with 247 colonists.

Celinda Hines - Death Be Repressed

Celinda Hines' large family began their trek west in 1853 from Oswego, New York with well equipped wagons.  Celinda wrote of her appreciation of nature's beauty when she noted, "Chimney Rock was awfully sublime by moonlight."  When Indians came to camp "to fish in exchange for clothing, we brought a number...they understood swap and no swap...they seemed anxious to get shirts and socks."

August 29, 1853 started pleasantly enough.  The family reached a ferry stop on the Sweetwater

River.  With cash low, the decided to cross the livestock and wagons without hiring a ferry master.  The men began to guide the animals across, but were caught in a sudden swift current.  While the women watched, Celinda's father was swept away and drowned.  The rest of the men didn't dare risk a rescue.  Celinda wrote, "an Indian chief whom Uncle Gus could talk in Chinook dialect with, took several of his men who were expert swimmers and divers and made every possible exertion to get the body, but were unsuccessful.  Uncle Gus swam in to get Pa's hat."

Celinda wrote that "with hearts overflowing with sorrow, we were under the necessity of pursuing our journey immediately, as there was no grass where we were."  She noted that the "wolves howled", no doubt in mournful sympathy.

Celinda consoled herself that her father was "yet living" and that he "would watch over me and continue to guide me".  A week later she was able once again to note the beauty of her surroundings, all mention of her grief gone.

Women's journals recorded incidents of death, but seldom the grief that followed.  They suppressed emotions that threatened self-control.  As a simple phrase in another woman's journal stated, "we must endure trials like good soldiers."  The trail was cruel as many families experienced.

Next time...The Upper Class Goes West
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Today in Pioneer History:  On November 2,1912, the XIT Ranch of Texas, once among the largest ranches in the world, sells its last head of cattle.

The Strange Journey of Rebecca Ketcham

Rebecca Ketcham, single woman headed west in the 1850s with a party of mostly men, found the trip required more than just physical stamina.  Reassuring herself that "if one is prepared with a good stock of patience and cheerfulness" any difficulty could be overcome.  She was tough!  as she wrote in her journal:

"In jumping off the horse alone today, I caught my dress in the horn of the saddle and tore almost half of the skirt off.  That I must mend tonight.  I have had no dress on since the day we came to Westport  but my palm leaf muslin delaine.  I mean to stick to it as long as I can.  It is very dirty and has been torn nearly if not quite twenty times.  I don't care."

Rebecca recorded the carelessness for her well-being by both men and women of the wagon party during a rainstorm:

"When the rainstorm came on, instead of taking me in the wagon, Mr. Gray let me have his rubber overcoat.  It covered my shoulders and arms.  My feet and almost the whole my lap were uncovered.  Mr. Gray told me I would get all wet and muddy and laughed at me when I came into the camp.  My feet and limbs cold as ice, and my face and head like fire."

Why Rebecca was excluded from the other women in the party is unknown.  Was she not of their class?  She was well-educated and the prominent Schuyler family financed her trip.  Another question - why had she traveled alone by carriage from New York to Missouri as stated in the first post about her journey?  If she had left a troublesome situation the women would certainly have been sympathetic...

From her journal she certainly expected better treatment, yet some entries show a feeling of desperation:

"Was very faint and sick at my stomach.  Oh how I thought of Cynthia and her dear mother.  If they had been with me I don't believe I would have sat there all this time without a word of care or sympathy.  Oh the loneliness I feel."

At times her journal tells the vivid accounts of her surroundings and details of her journey, but the attitude of the women  depressed her..."So many times I feel wronged, so illy treated that I hardly know how to restrain my feeling and the effort I make to say nothing depresses my spirits very much."


Rebecca seems to have traveled with an unhappy group of travelers.  By August, some of her resolve seems to have worn away.  "I begin to have some misgivings and fear I shall be in a strange land without one friend." 

Rebecca reached Oregon in spite of it all and became the school teacher as she intended.  Within two years she married Finnis E Mills, a member of the board of trustees for the First Presbyterian Society of Clatsop County, and a gentlemen.  They had 2 sons and in 1855 she and her family returned to her husband's home in Kentucky.  From there  Rebecca is heard of no more, but her journal is a testament to a plain spoken woman who went west alone...and survived. 

Next time...Celinda Hines Story

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Today in Pioneer History:  On October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty in New York's Harbor. It arrived in the city on June 17, 1886, and over the next several months was reassembled while electricians worked to wire the torch to light up at night.

John and Annie Stewart's Journey

This story begins with a bit of background on the Stewart family...

John Stewart started from Pennsylvania in 1853 with his second wife, Jannet, his 3 unmarried daughters, Agnes, Helen Marnie and Elizabeth.  The Stewart's eldest daughter, Annie was married to John Stewart (no relation to her father).  They came along with their 11 children, aged 1 to 19.  Another daughter, Mary Stewart Warner, and her husband, John Warner, and their 3 children also went with the family.  Elizabeth Stewart would marry Fred Warner (a son) in St. Joseph, Missouri, on May 23 at the start of the trip.  Following so far?  Lots of Johns in this story! Another Stewart daughter, Allison remained at home in Pennsylvania awaiting the birth of her third child in June of 1853.  The family was a very close knit family - 11 of the children were name for the parents and sisters. 

With the Stewarts was Mrs. Love, who had known the family for some 10 years and her grown three sons.  David, James, and (of course!) John.  Helen Marnie Stewart would marry David Love the next year in Oregon.  Agnes would marry another of the Warner boys, Tom.  With that marriage Papa John Stewart would have all his daughters married. :)

The family planned to make it all the way to Oregon as one unit...but of course that didn't turn out as planned.  Annie and her husband John Stewart (not her father) fell behind quickly.  In Missouri after the wedding of Elizabeth and Fred, they fell behind because their wagons were too loaded down to be able to move fast enough to keep up with the rest of the party.  On May 4, the elder Stewarts, Loves, and Warners decided they could wait no longer and took off without them.  Why they did not just unload some of their belongings is recorded Helen Marnie's diary:

 "May 17, I wish the Stewart folks would  come up to us.  I don't like to be parted from any of our

people when we all get together again I hope we will not be parted again."

"May 21, Left Stewart folks for good I suppose.  if he is not so stubborn he might throw away one of those big wagons and we would wait on him yet if it was not for anna and the children I would not care so much but it is hard to leave them."

"June 4, Stewart is about 60 miles back and will never catch up to us now  we cannot wait so long for fear of endangering out own fate."

"June 15, Heard of Stewart today that he sold his little wagon and were all well and getting along very well.  I do wish they would ketch up with us."


The story continues next time...do they all meet up again?
For more information, Google "Agnes Stewart Warner"...

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On This Day in Pioneer History:  On October 15, 1880, the warrior Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists of all time, dies  in the Tres Castillos Mountains south of El Paso

Miriam Thompson Tuller's Story

Born in Illinois, Miriam married Arthur Thompson at the age of 15 and joined the migration to the west with her husband the following spring.  In Miriam's own words:  "My husband is fired with patriotism and myself am possessed with a spirit of adventure and a desire to see what is new and strange."

With no children, strong and eager, the Thompsons brought youth and optimism to the westward journey.  The couple set out on May 11, 1845, as part of an 840 wagon train.

"We were unable to make much headway with so large a train of wagons.  The company divided and then divided again until we had 20 wagons sometimes and sometimes only 4 or 5 wagons.  We were indifferent to fear.  The buffalo were solid masses as far as the eye could reach and we had fresh meat galore."

At Fort Hall, Miriam's group met a  man who told them that Indians would kill them before they reached the West.  The group was of stout heart and weren't afraid and as Miriam said,

"The Indians proved better than represented.  They were there during a sandstorm with their canoes and were more than willing to take us over for some calico shirts.  The wagons were unloaded and taken apart and after many loads, we were safely out."

Missionaries along the road sold beef and potatoes and the travelers felt confident of their travels.
Soon the mountains became treacherous and the men decided to send the women and children ahead on horseback and mules.

"I was mounted on an Indian pony...left husband and camp - everything but a few clothes and a little provision to try to reacch some place before the rains set in."

The little party of women and guides climbed Mount Hood: "The coming down was worse than the going up.  The zigzag trail a foot or more deep with sand.  It rained hard all night.  We had no tent or shelter.  The 4th night we met 3 men from Oregon City who came with provisions to rescue."

The final entry in Miriam's diary is quite different from the optimistic way she began her journal.  "In
the fall of 1848 when gold was discovered my husband went, but never returned.  He was murdered by Indians.  There were 4 in the camp and none were left to tell the tale.  July 1850, was   married to Jeremiah G. Tuller."
(pic at right is the actual campsite of Thompson...minus the car.)

And that was the end of Miriam's journal keeping.  With a husband, children and a labor intensive life in the new west, she probably had little time for recording her "mundane" life of a pioneer. 

Next time...Reflections of a Pioneer Woman in Later Life

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Today in Pioneer History:  On August 18, 1853,  Cyrus Skinner, who would later be hanged by the Montana vigilantes, ends his first stay in the  at San Quentin.Skinner was typical of the thieves and killers who terrorized the gold fields of Montana in the early 1860s.

Meanwhile on the Way to Oregon

Those bound for Oregon found the trail ran along the steep ledges of the Snake River.  Reaching Fort Boise, they followed the edge of the desert until they came face to face with the Blue Mountains.

Raising wagons by ropes as their California counterparts did, blocking the wheels with rocks as they
inched their up and over the mountains was a time-consuming task with the winter weather closing in fast.

Helen Marnie Stewart wrote that "the hills were dreadfully steep, locking both wheels and coming down was slow.  Got down safe, oh dear me, the desert is very hard on the poor animals, going without grass or water for 1 1/2 days.

The train reached the "Dalles" (an 'evil branch of the Columbia River' as on journal put it), in the next 200 miles where the cliff walls were too high to cross, so most pioneers ferried the last 100 miles down the Columbia River into the Willamette Valley.  For those who couldn't afford the cost of the ferry, they loaded their possessions into canoes and hired Indians to paddle them across.  For others they simply tied their possessions on pack mules or just left everything behind and walked the last miles into Oregon territory.  One journal said, "The Oregon Trail was not a trip for the fainthearted, perhaps only for the foolhardy."

Next time...time out for some interesting statistics!

Today in Pioneer History:  On June 22, 1876, the once mighty Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna dies in Mexico City embittered and impoverished