Darcy Williamson - Mountain Men of Idaho

Mountain Men ofIdaho

by

Darcy J. Williamson

PUBLISHED BY:

Darcy Williamson onSmashwords

Mountain Men of Idaho

Copyright 2010 by DarcyWilliamson

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ISBN 9780984313617

Contents

ARTISANS ~ Members of larger tradingposts who worked as blacksmiths, carpenters and boatbuilders.

BOURGEOIS ~ The person in charge of atrading post and its field expeditions.

BULL-BOAT ~ A boat made of a largeanimal skin (preferably buffalo), stretched over a frame of willowor cottonwood poles.

CACHE ~ Property or goods of trapperstemporarily hidden in a carefully concealed pit.

CAMP KEEPER ~ The person who skinnedbeaver, cleaned, dressed and dried the pelts, took care of thestock and attended to other duties of the trappers camp. There wasusually one camp keeper for every two trappers.

CLERK ~ The first in line for promotionto the rank of bourgeois, and in the latters absence, preformedhis duties.

DUGOUT ~ A wooden canoe dug out fromthe trunk of a tree (usually cottonwood.)

FREE TRAPPER ~ A trapper not bound bycontract or agreement with any fur-trading company.

MANGEURS DE LARD ~ ImportedCanadians who were used as raw recruits in the fur trade. Fedprincipally on pork, they were called mangeurs de lard . This term came tobe used in ridicule to denote greenhorns.

PACKS ~ Bundles of furs securelywrapped for transport to market. Each pack usually contained eightybeaver pelts and weighed around 100 lbs.

PEMMICAN ~ Buffalo meat which wassliced paper thin and dried, then pounded to a fine powder andmixed with melted buffalo cow fat. Often dried serviceberries wereadded. The mixture was packed into hide sacks and used as a staplewhen fresh meat was unavailable. Pemmican would retain its ediblequality for a number of years.

RENDEZVOUS ~ An annual meeting oftrappers and Indians for the purpose of trafficking furs andpurchasing equipment for the ensuing year.

VOYAGEURS ~ French Creoles hired tonavigate canoes or other crafts along streams and rivers. They wereusually devout Catholics and almost always illiterate.

Andrew Henry was born in Pennsylvaniaaround 1775. Having been born to a life of affluence and socialprominence, he prospered and thrived. He had developed into a tallman with a swarthy dark complexion and a taste for the finer thingsin life. Andrew wore the latest fashions, dined in the finest homesand wooed the ladies by playing quixotic melodies on his violin. Healso kept himself active in various organizations, often holdinghigh positions within their structure; and being civic-minded,served as election judge and juryman. Then, at the age ofthirty-three, he apparently tired of the easy life.

In 1809, Andrew Henry joined ManuelLisa, Jean Pierre Chouteau and seven others in organizing theMissouri Fur Company. Not content to operate behind the scenes froman office in St. Louis, Henry donned buckskins and headed to theRocky Mountains. In the Rockies he contended with the hardships ofthe trade; grizzly bear attacks; fighting Blackfoot warriors;hunger; cold; thirst; exhaustion.

Many of the trappers working for theMissouri Fur Company were from various Indian tribes. The MissouriFur Company had relied on Indians to do the actual trapping andhunting that produced the furs. The furs were then brought totrading posts where, with increasing frequency, the Indian trapperswere given liquor as an actual medium of exchange. The pattern wasso firmly established that it was difficult to conduct businesswithout a substantial supply of alcohol. In July of 1822, a law wasenacted prohibiting the sale or trade of alcohol toIndians.

Andrew Henry then joined with WilliamH. Ashley to form a new business, The Rocky Mountain Fur Company,based in Saint Louis, Missouri. Advertisements were posted in St.Louis newspapers seeking "One Hundred enterprising young men...to ascend the river Missouri to its source, there to be employedfor one, two, or three years." Among those hired were JedediahSmith, William Sublette, Milton Sublette, Jim Beckworth, ThomasFitzpatrick and David Edward Jackson.

Andrew Henry retired from the fur tradetwo years later in 1824, at the age of fifty, and died in1832.

Andrew Henry could have lived and dieda very wealthy man. He didnt. He had chosen adventure instead. Heonce told a friend that he had suffered a great deal and had metwith many misfortunes. But he left a legacy which must certainlyhave eased some of his losses ~ the establishment of Fort Henry, inpresent-day Idaho, the first American fur post erected on thePacific side of the Rockies.

During the spring of 1810, Andrew Henryand his men built a fort on the Three Forks of the Missouri.However, a little over a month later the fort came under attack.Eight trappers lost their lives fighting the territorial Blackfeet.Many other men were seriously wounded.

Knowing that the attacks wouldcontinue, Henry abandoned the fort. He and his company ascended theMadison River, crossed the Continental Divide and came upon a lake(later named Henrys Lake). The group continued on until they founda well-watered district with numerous tributaries. Here AndrewHenry erected a fort (in the vicinity of the present city of St.Anthony). Three log cabins were built to serve as temporary winterquarters for his men.

The area had at first seemed ideal forsuch a post. There was an abundance of game, wood and grass.Streams crisscrossed the area and beaver ponds werecommon.

The Shoshoni called the area Egin,meaning cold. Its elevation was 4,600 feet and was an area proneto heavy snowfall. Below-zero temperatures often persisted forweeks during the winter months. Had Andrew Henry known this, thefort would most likely have been moved seventy miles farther southto the bottomlands of the Portneuf.

The winter of 1810 was harsh. The gameleft the area and the men had difficulty obtaining food. Theysubsisted on the flesh of their horses. Though the men suffered agreat deal from the cold, no deaths were recorded.

The spring hunt of 1811 brought inforty packs of beaver pelts from the area. However, at theconclusion of the spring trapping season, Henry abandoned thefort.

While trapping in the Rockies with aparty of William Ashleys men, commanded by Major Henry, Hugh Glasswas severely mauled by a large female grizzly bear. His companionsfound Glass barely alive; his breathing was coming in torturedrasps; blood flowed freely from numerous gashes and the dying manlay in a bath of his own coagulating blood.

His trapping comrades held vigilancethroughout the first night. Then the next. And the next. Theunconscious Glass was taking his time dying and the mountain mencouldnt wait around forever. John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridgervolunteered to stay with the dying man. Several days later theycontemplated putting the suffering man out of his misery, butneither could come up with the nerve. Glass seemed to slip furtherand further towards death.

A week later, Fitzgerald and Bridgerrejoined their brigade at Fort Henry with the news that Glass wasdead. They had with them his gun and knife.