Jesse Chisholm - Blazing the Chisholm Trail

OLD WEST LEGENDS

Jesse Chisholm - Blazing a Trail

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Though Jesse Chisholm blazed the famous cattle trail that took his name, he never herded cattle. Rather, he used the path to transport goods from his trading posts. Born in Tennessee in 1805 or 1806, Jesse was the oldest of three boys sired by a Scottish immigrant, Ignatius Chisholm and his Cherokee wife. Some time later, his parents separated but both parents went to Arkansas Territory.

During the late 1820’s Jesse moved to the Cherokee Nation, settling near Fort Gibson, Oklahoma and became a trader. During this time he also worked as a hunter, guide, and scout. In 1836, he married Eliza Edwards and soon left the Cherokee Nation, settling in the Creek Nation, in what is now Hughes County, Oklahoma, where he established a trading post.

Fluent in fourteen different Indian dialects, Chisholm was highly successful in trading goods with the various tribes in Indian Territory.

Because of his linguistic skills he was also in high demand as an interpreter, eventually becoming involved in a number of treaty councils in Texas, Indian Territory, and Kansas.

During his travels through Indian Territory, he rescued a number of captive Mexican children from the Comanches and Kiowas, adopted them and made them part of his family.

Chisholm also began to expand his trading operations, opening additional trading posts in what is now Cleveland County, Oklahoma; one near Oklahoma City, and another in Wichita, Kansas. The vast majority of his trading was completed by hauling wagons to the Indian villages and the U.S. Army posts.

During the Civil War, Chisholm first served the Confederate Army as a trader with the Indians; however, by 1864, he was acting as an interpreter for the Union forces and was living in Wichita, Kansas. It was at this time that he first marked what would become known as the Chisholm Trail.

Ironically, Chisholm never drove cattle on the trail that was named for him, but when the Texas cattlemen were looking for a way to drive their cattle northward to the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway, they began to use the trail in 1867.

The following year, Jesse Chisholm died of food poisoning in his trading camp on April 4, 1868. He is buried near Geary, Oklahoma.

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