|
 William Clark
(1770-1838) - Born on August 1, 1770 in Caroline County,
Virginia, Clark moved with his family to Lousville, Kentucky in 1785. After receiving a quality education and becoming a geographical
expert, he joined the militia in 1789. In 1796 he left the army
and in 1803, Captain
Meriwether Lewis invited him to share the leadership in the
Corps of
Discovery. For
the next three years, they and their men explored the vast uncharted area
newly acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, with Clark acting as
mapmaker and artist. After Clark's successful return from the
Pacific coast three years later, President Jefferson awarded him 1,600
acres and made him brigadier general of militia for the Louisiana
Territory as well as superintendent of
Indian
affairs. From 1813 to 1832, Clark served as governor of the
Missouri
Territory. Clark died of natural causes in
St. Louis on
September 1, 1838.
More ...
 David
"Davy" Crockett (1786-1836)
- A frontiersman, explorer and pioneer,
David de Crocketagne was born on August 17, 1786, near Limestone,
Kentucky, Crockett fought in the Creek
Indian War
under Andrew Jackson, before taking up the life of a politician. He
represented Tennessee in the state legislature and then as a
representative in the U.S. Congress. However, when he lost the
re-election in 1835, he said "you may all go to hell, and I will go to
Texas." He joined the
Texas
Revolution in the fall of 1835 and in February, 1846, he arrived at the
Alamo with his
group of Tennessee Mounted Volunteers. Fighting against Santa Anna
during the siege of the
Alamo, he lost
his life on March 6, 1836, along with 189 defenders.
|
|
|
 John Charles Fremont
(1813-1890) - Explorer, Surveyor, Military Man and Politician,
Freemont was born on January 21, 1813 in Savannah, Georgia. When his
father died when John was just five years old, the family moved to
Charleston, South Carolina where he attended college before being expelled
for irregular attendance. However, he'd done well in math and got a
teaching job on a warship. His career as an
explorer began when he left the Navy to be a second lieutenant in the
United States Topographical Corps, which later became the Army Corps of
Engineers. In 1838 he was commissioned second lieutenant by President Van
Buren and in that year and the next, he took part in Jean Nicollet's expedition to
the plains between the upper Mississippi and Missouri
Rivers. Becoming an expert in geology and topography, he headed his
own expedition into to survey the Des Moines River in 1841. On October 19,
1841, he secretly married Jessie, daughter of Thomas H. Benton, her
parents objecting to the union on account of her age. The next ten years
Fremont spent in exploring the country between the Missouri River and the
Rocky Mountains, and all the way to the Pacific Coast (see
Freemont's Expeditions.) His
reports gave to many, their first knowledge of what is now the many states
of the American West and his work won for him, the sobriquet of
"Pathfinder." Landing in
California
with his wife, Fremont led much of the revolt in Alta that led to the
state to its admission in the Union. When gold was found on the land that
he had purchased in the Sierra foothills, he became a millionaire. He then
moved to politics, serving as one of
California's
first senators. The first Republican National Convention in 1856 nominated
him for the presidency, and he received 114 electoral votes, but James
Buchanan received 174 and went on to win the election. Soon after the
Civil War
began he was made major-general and assigned to the command of the Western
Department, with headquarters at
St. Louis,
Missouri. On
August 31, 1861, he proclaimed martial law and the emancipation of the
slaves belonging to those in arms against the government. President
Lincoln endorsed the proclamation, except that part concerning
emancipation, but this Fremont refused to rescind, and it was finally
annulled by order of the president. This, and other complaints, caused him
to he relieved of his command, but the following spring he was placed in
command of the mountain district in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. When
his command was made a part of General John Pope's army of Virginia,
Fremont asked to be relieved. His request was granted, and this
practically ended his military career. Afterwards, he lost his
fortune through bad investments with railroads and moved to
Arizona,
where he was made territorial governor from 1878 to 1883. In 1887
Fremont returned to
California.
General Fremont was the author of various works, most of them relating to
his explorations. He died on July 13, 1890, in New York City.
 Josiah
Gregg (1806-1850) - Trader, explorer, naturalist and writer, Gregg
was born to Savannah and Harmon Gregg in Tennessee on July 19, 1806. When
he was just a child, he moved with his family to Howard County,
Missouri.
Josiah was a sickly boy who tended towards intellectual endeavors,
tutoring mathematics while still a child and studying surveying at 16.
Around 1825 the family moved to Jackson County, where Josiah opened a
school and taught for a year. He wanted to study medicine, but was denied
an apprenticeship so turned to studying law. In 1830; however, he became
seriously ill with tuberculosis. The following summer, unable to sit on a
horse, he joined a caravan headed to Santa Fe,
New Mexico on
the advice of his doctor. Starting the trip lying in the back of a wagon,
his health improved along the way and by the time the wagon train reached
New Mexico,
he had learned to speak Spanish and was bookkeeping for a merchant named
Jesse Sutton.
For the next nine years,
Gregg crossed the plains four times, becoming a trader himself, and
documenting everything he saw. On his last trip he blazed a new trail from
Van Buren, Arkansas to Santa Fe, a route that would later be heavily
utilized by those rushing to the California Goldfields. By 1842, he was
living in Van Buren, Arkansas and began to write a book of his travels,
Commerce of the Prairies, published in 1844.
Still determined to study
medicine, he entered a medical college in Louisville Kentucky in 1845 and
though ill during much of his studies, was granted a degree the following
year. However, instead of practicing medicine, he served as an interpreter
and correspondent in the Mexican-American War.
Afterwards, he practiced
medicine in Saltillo, Mexico until he heard the rumors of the California
Gold Rush. In July, 1849, he was headed for San Francisco. However, the
following year, he died after falling from his horse on February 25, 1850
John
Williams Gunnison (1812-1853) - Born in New Hampshire in 1812, Gunnison
became a Second Lieutenant of topographical engineers after graduating
from the United States Military Academy. After serving in the Florida War
of 1837-1839, he spent the next ten years surveying the lakes and harbors
of the great northwestern United States. While working in the Salt Lake
City region he befriended the Mormons and acted as a negotiator in several
uprisings between them and
the local
Native
Americans. Winning him
the admiration of his peers and giving Gunnison confidence in his
abilities to deal with the
Indians,
it would later prove to be the death of him. In 1853 he was charged with
finding and surveying a railway route from the
Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean. After moving
along the
Kansas-Nebraska
border, his journey took him over the
Rocky Mountains, and into the Gunnison River Valley. Working with a
guide from Taos,
New Mexico,
the pair, along with the rest of Gunnison's party, came into conflict with
Ute warriors on several occasions, but Gunnison was able to appease
them and move on, further boosting his confidence in dealing with the
natives. However, as he and his party moved into
Utah, locals warned
them of recent trouble with the Paiutes. Overconfident in his
abilities to negotiate with the
Indians,
he divided his crew into two groups before going around Lake Sevier. It was a fatal mistake. The next morning, October 26, 1853, a band of Paiutes, seeking revenge for the killing of their chief, ambushed and
killed Gunnison and all but four of the eleven members in his group.
Gunnison's route through
the fabled Black Canyon of Gunnison was never used for a transcontinental
railroad; however, the information he gathered throughout his career would
later provide extremely useful in the development of the west.
Continued Next Page |
Please report
broken links, missing pictures, or other problems online by clicking
