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Timeline
1831 - Detail
May 27, 1831 - Jedediah Smith, legendary mountain man and fur trader with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, is killed by Comanche on the Cimarron River. The expeditions by Smith were noted as the most dangerous explorations during the height of the fur trade years.
Jedediah Smith had been one of the first fur traders who signed on with Ashley's Hundred, which eventually turned into the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He even bought into the company when original owner General William Ashley decided politics were more for him in 1826, however Smith's partnership and ownership did not last long. In 1830, he and his partners sold out to other men from Ashley's Hundred; Jim Bridger, Milton Sublette, Tom Fitzpatrick and two others. Did he see the writing on the wall that the fur trading business was starting to turn south? Did he recognize that the competition from the Great Britain's Hudson Bay Company and Astor's American Fur Trading Company could be troublesome? In actuality, both of the above are true, and his demise came not from the fur trading business, but an attempt to help his brothers trade on the Santa Fe Trail.
Jedediah Smith had become a legend amongst the men of Ashley's Hundred; he was the first white man who crossed the Salt Lake frontier, the Colorado River, the Mojave Desert. He even made it all the way to California during one of the fur trips in 1826. Along the way, there were three massacres and one bear mauling.
"I wanted to be the first to view a country on which the eyes of a white man had never gazed and to follow the course of rivers that run through a new land," Jedediah Smith.
Smith was born Jedediah Strong Smith in 1799 in Jericho, now Bainbridge, New York. Smith was an avid reader, both of the Bible and the adventures of Lewis and Clark. When he saw the advertisement for Ashley's Hundred while living in New York, he saw it as an opportunity to discover unmapped territory and make money his family sorely needed. Ashley hired the 6'3" Smith immediately, making him a hunter in the party. It wasn't long before Ashley saw his capabilities, particularly in a battle on June 1, 1823 with the Arikara, and made Jedediah Smith a captain in his entourage.
Once Smith, William Sublette, and David Jackson bought the company from Ashley, the duties of the firm were split into three. Jedediah Smith would take seventeen men on a two year journey beginning August 1826, opening up California and Oregon to the trade. He reached the area of today's Los Angeles. However, this was California owned by Mexico, who thought Smith a spy, and urged the party to leave as they had come and not travel north. Smith led his party east until crossing the San Bernadino Mountains, then deked north to search for beaver in Oregon. There would be even more trouble along the way.
In 1828, fifteen of Smith's nineteen men were killed by the Klawatset Indians in Oregon territory, with Smith and three others desperately fleeing toward Fort Vancouver, a fort of their rival, the British based Hudson Bay Company.
In 1829, Jedediah Smith trapped in the Bighorn Basin along the Wind River to the Musselshell River in Montana. It was a successful season, but Smith decided that now was the time to get out of the fur business.
The Trip into Comanche Territory
Once the sale of the company owned by Jedediah Smith, William Sublette, and David Jackson was complete, Smith traveled back to St. Louis with the furs from the season, and met his brothers. They wanted to get into another fur trading business with Jedediah, but he refused. He encouraged them to join the trading route along the Santa Fe Trail. They agreed, and with Jedediah's wagons filled with goods to trade, he joined his brothers on their first trip with the caravan. Smith also warned Secretary of War Eaton of the military implications of what the British were doing in Oregon Territory, attempting to build what he saw as a permanent settlement.
The Commerce of the Prairies wagon train with Smith, his brothers, and their partners, departed St. Louis in mid-April 1831 with seventy-four men and twenty-two wagons. After one month, they were in the middle of a dry spell within a desert called the Cimarron Cutoff. For three days, the party was without water. Jedediah Smith decided that they should head out in separate directions to search for water. He headed for the Cimarron River south of today's Ulysses, Kansas, where he met an unfriendly band of fifteen to twenty Comanche Indians near Wagon Bed Spring, who despite attempting to negotiate with them, spooked his horse and shot him in the shoulder. Smith kept up the fire, killing the chief and perhaps several others, but there were too many to overcome. Jedediah Smith was mortally wounded by their long spears.
Smith's brothers Austin and Peter knew nothing of his whereabouts for weeks until they wandered into Santa Fe on July 4, 1831, only to find his pistols and rifle for sale on the streets. Mexican traders told them the story of his death.
Image above: Sketch of the Jenks party on the Santa Fe Trail, 1859, Daniel A. Jenks. Courtesy Library of Congress. Photo below: Montage (left) Jim Bridger, 1911, unknown author. Courtesy Gaston's Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders, Volume 1, via Wikipedia Commons. (center) Jedediah Smith, 1835, friend of Smith. Courtesy "The travels of Jedediah Smith, 1934, Maurice Sullivan via Wikipedia Commons. (right) Jim Beckwourth, circa 1856, unknown author. Courtesy "The Life and Times of James P. Beckwourth," 1856, T.D. Bonner, via Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Info Source: Jedediahsmithsociety.org, University of the Pacific; Library of Congress; "Jedediah Smith - Blazing the Rockies," Legendsofamerica.com; Wikipedia Commons.
History
Photo Bomb
The painting of the Alamo by Percy Moran, 1912, reflects the
intensity of the battle in San Antonio. Courtesy Library of Congress.
Timeline Book
Frederick Douglass. Courtesy National Archives.
ABH Travel Tip
Don't forget to look into many state historic sites when visiting the National Parks of the area. These sites, although smaller in scale than the National Historic Sites in many instances, carry a plethora of interesting tidbit about the nation's history that you don't want to miss.
A reenactment of a wagon train on the Oregon Trail brings back the time of the great migration west at national historic sites such as Scotts Bluff National Historic Site.
Historic Fiction
Get historical fiction about the son of Jesse James, nothing
like his father, in Freeborn. Unique humor fiction.
Jedediah Smith had become a legend amongst the men of Ashley's Hundred; he was the first white man who crossed the Salt Lake frontier, the Colorado River, the Mojave Desert. He even made it all the way to California during one of the fur trips in 1826. Along the way, there were three massacres and one bear mauling.
"I wanted to be the first to view a country on which the eyes of a white man had never gazed and to follow the course of rivers that run through a new land," Jedediah Smith.
Smith was born Jedediah Strong Smith in 1799 in Jericho, now Bainbridge, New York. Smith was an avid reader, both of the Bible and the adventures of Lewis and Clark. When he saw the advertisement for Ashley's Hundred while living in New York, he saw it as an opportunity to discover unmapped territory and make money his family sorely needed. Ashley hired the 6'3" Smith immediately, making him a hunter in the party. It wasn't long before Ashley saw his capabilities, particularly in a battle on June 1, 1823 with the Arikara, and made Jedediah Smith a captain in his entourage.
Once Smith, William Sublette, and David Jackson bought the company from Ashley, the duties of the firm were split into three. Jedediah Smith would take seventeen men on a two year journey beginning August 1826, opening up California and Oregon to the trade. He reached the area of today's Los Angeles. However, this was California owned by Mexico, who thought Smith a spy, and urged the party to leave as they had come and not travel north. Smith led his party east until crossing the San Bernadino Mountains, then deked north to search for beaver in Oregon. There would be even more trouble along the way.
In 1828, fifteen of Smith's nineteen men were killed by the Klawatset Indians in Oregon territory, with Smith and three others desperately fleeing toward Fort Vancouver, a fort of their rival, the British based Hudson Bay Company.
In 1829, Jedediah Smith trapped in the Bighorn Basin along the Wind River to the Musselshell River in Montana. It was a successful season, but Smith decided that now was the time to get out of the fur business.
The Commerce of the Prairies wagon train with Smith, his brothers, and their partners, departed St. Louis in mid-April 1831 with seventy-four men and twenty-two wagons. After one month, they were in the middle of a dry spell within a desert called the Cimarron Cutoff. For three days, the party was without water. Jedediah Smith decided that they should head out in separate directions to search for water. He headed for the Cimarron River south of today's Ulysses, Kansas, where he met an unfriendly band of fifteen to twenty Comanche Indians near Wagon Bed Spring, who despite attempting to negotiate with them, spooked his horse and shot him in the shoulder. Smith kept up the fire, killing the chief and perhaps several others, but there were too many to overcome. Jedediah Smith was mortally wounded by their long spears.
Smith's brothers Austin and Peter knew nothing of his whereabouts for weeks until they wandered into Santa Fe on July 4, 1831, only to find his pistols and rifle for sale on the streets. Mexican traders told them the story of his death.
Image above: Sketch of the Jenks party on the Santa Fe Trail, 1859, Daniel A. Jenks. Courtesy Library of Congress. Photo below: Montage (left) Jim Bridger, 1911, unknown author. Courtesy Gaston's Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders, Volume 1, via Wikipedia Commons. (center) Jedediah Smith, 1835, friend of Smith. Courtesy "The travels of Jedediah Smith, 1934, Maurice Sullivan via Wikipedia Commons. (right) Jim Beckwourth, circa 1856, unknown author. Courtesy "The Life and Times of James P. Beckwourth," 1856, T.D. Bonner, via Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Info Source: Jedediahsmithsociety.org, University of the Pacific; Library of Congress; "Jedediah Smith - Blazing the Rockies," Legendsofamerica.com; Wikipedia Commons.
History Photo Bomb
The painting of the Alamo by Percy Moran, 1912, reflects the
intensity of the battle in San Antonio. Courtesy Library of Congress.
Timeline Book
Frederick Douglass. Courtesy National Archives.
ABH Travel Tip
Don't forget to look into many state historic sites when visiting the National Parks of the area. These sites, although smaller in scale than the National Historic Sites in many instances, carry a plethora of interesting tidbit about the nation's history that you don't want to miss.
A reenactment of a wagon train on the Oregon Trail brings back the time of the great migration west at national historic sites such as Scotts Bluff National Historic Site.
Historic Fiction
Get historical fiction about the son of Jesse James, nothing
like his father, in Freeborn. Unique humor fiction.