goldfields

From John Bidwell’s Journal:

June. Tuesday, 1st. This morning we hastened to leave our miserable encampment and proceeded directly north, we reached Big Platte river about 12 o’clock. The heat was uncommonly oppressive.  I here discovered the ground was in many places hoary with Glauber Salts, or at least I was unable to distinguish them by taste. This afternoon we had a soaking shower, which was succeeded by a heavy hailstorm.

Glauber Salts are sodium sulfate, an inorganic chemical which today is used in the manufacture of detergents and in paper pulping. In Bidwell’s day it was used as a laxative.

About the hailstorm, the Rev. Williams wrote: “At 2 o’clock commenced a most tremendous bad storm, with wind, which blew down most of the tents, accompanied with rain and lightning and thunder almost all night. I slept but little, the ground being all covered with water. That night dreadful oaths were heard all over the camp ground. O the wickedness of the wicked!” Poor Rev. Williams found it very trying to travel “in the midst of an ignorant and hard-hearted people.”

Bidwell continues his journal entry:

Wonderful! This evening a new family was created! Isaac Kelsey was married to Miss Williams, daughter of R. Williams. The marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev. Pr. Williams, so we now have five families, if we include a widow and child.

Miss Winifred Williams was the daughter of Richard Williams and his wife, whose name is not recorded. Isaac Kelsey, who was also known as Zedidiah, was one of the four Kelsey brothers on the trip. He and Samuel went to Oregon, and Benjamin and Andrew went to California. Isaac was born in 1818, making him one year older than John Bidwell, and 22 or 23 years old when he married on the trail. Very little else is known about the young couple and their further adventures.

From John Bidwell’s Journal:

Monday, 31st. This morning about 10 o’clock we met six wagons with 18 men, with fur and robes on their way from Ft. Larimie [sic] to St. Louis. Ft. Larimie is situated on Larimie’s fork near its junction with the N. fork of Platte, and is about 800 miles from Independence. [So their guide, Thomas Fitzpatrick, must have told Bidwell.] The wagons were drawn by oxen and mules–the former looked as though they received a thousand lashes every day of their existence! The rusty mountaineers looked as though they never had seen razor, water, soap, or brush. It was very warm, and we travelled till dark before we were able to reach water, and then it was not fit to drink, and then we could not procure any wood, grass scarce.

This illustration by Frederic Remington shows two mountaineers as Bidwell saw them, without “razor, water, soap, or brush.”

The company had left the Kansas River and traveled up the Little Blue, and at this date were situated just beyond the source of the Little Blue and not yet at the Platte River, which they would follow until they reached Ft. Laramie.

The “rusty mountaineers” that Bidwell’s group met were working for one of the fur-trading companies that flourished in the western territories during the first half of the 19th century. St. Louis was the marketplace and supply point for the fur traders and mountain men, and from that point the buffalo robes and beaver pelts were shipped to the East Coast and Europe.

On May 27, 1864 John Bidwell arrived in New York City. He had traveled via the Isthmus of Panama from San Francisco to New York; the trip took a little over 3 weeks. He kept a journal with very brief entries.

He went East as a delegate of the California Republican Party. The national party at this time was called the National Union Party and was an amalgam of the majority of the Republicans plus Northern Democrats who favored the war. The convention, which was held in Baltimore, quickly nominated Abraham Lincoln for a second term. They also replaced Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin with War Democrat Andrew Johnson. Although Bidwell does not mention it in his journal, he was part of the delegation that went to the White House to announce the nomination to President Lincoln.

Besides attending the convention, Bidwell was also eager to go to the front and meet his hero, General Ulysses S. Grant. He was lucky enough to sleep in Grant’s tent and see the general at work “up close and personal.”

Sun. May 29.
Went to hear Henry Ward Beecher – In evening went to hear Dr. Chapin.
[Edwin Hubbell Chapin, Universalist Church]
Mon. May 30.
Left New York for & arrd at Washington D.C. –
May 31 – June 5.
[No entries]
Mon. June 6.
Went to Baltimore –
Tues. June 7.
Convention met –
Wed. June 8.
Convention closed its labors nominating Abraham Lincoln for President
and Andrew Johnson for Vice President, and adjourned.
Thurs. June 9.
Went to Washington – Saw Secy of War
Fri. June 10.
Remained at Washington – obtained passes to go to the front –
Sat. June 11.
Left for the front 10 a.m. on mail boat Lizzie Baker.
Sun. June 12.
Arrd at the White House 9 1/2 a.m.- At 10 1/2 a.m. set out for Gen. Grant’s
and arrived 2 1/2 P.M. –
Mon. June 13.
Left 7 a.m. Gen. Grant’s headquarters, for the White House.

General Grant as Bidwell would have seen him.

this is what John Bidwell’s wagon and oxen would have looked like.

From John Bidwell’s Journal:

Thursday, 27th: Started late, being detained at repairing the wagons. The day was warm, but the evening mild and pleasant. Encamped in a commodious valley, well-watered by a beautiful little stream which glided smoothly through the scattering grove, come about 15 miles.

Sounds like a typical camping trip: a little delay with the vehicles, but altogether a pleasant day and a lovely camping spot.

Friday, 28th: Started about sunrise, travelled about 5 miles and stopped to take breakfast. The heat was oppressive and we were compelled to go 20 miles farther before we came to either wood or water. The stream on which we camped is a fork of the Kanzas and is well known to all the mountaineers, by the name of the Big Blue; an antelope was killed.

They are in the northeast corner of Kansas, traveling toward Nebraska. It still sounds like a typical camping trip: the weather is hot and they have to go farther than they expected to find good accommodations.

Bidwell’s Journal:

Sunday, May 23rd: All the oxen were gone this morning excepting nine. There was considerable complaint among the company, some saying at this slow rate of traveling we would have to winter among the Black Hills, and eat our mules etc. We, however, made a start about 9 in the morning, proceeded about nine miles and stopped to wait for Chiles’ wagon which overtook us about 5 P.M.; 14 Pawnees were seen by the wagon, well armed with spears etc. It was supposed they were on an expedition against the Kanzas.

Joseph Chiles was a member of the Western Emigration Society, but a little behind the others in getting started, and had to do some catching up. Once he and the men with him got with the main party, they were probably able to make better time, although the trip was slow going. Fifteen to twenty miles a day was the best they could do. They wouldn’t have to winter in the Black Hills, but the mules were another matter (and meal).

Friday, 21st. Our oxen left us last night, and it was 9 o’clock before we were all ready to start, passed a considerable stream called Vermillion, a branch of the Kanzas. On its banks were finer timber than we had heretofore seen, hickory, walnut, &c. &c. The country was prairie, hilly and strong; we passed in the forenoon a Kanzas village, entirely deserted on account of the Pawnees, [we] encamped by a scattering grove, having come about 15 miles.

On the 19th the emigrants had met some well-armed Kansas (Kaw or Kanza) Indians. who were expecting an attack by the Pawnees, in retaliation for an attack by the Kansas on a Pawnee village a short time before. The Kaw and the Pawnee were traditional enemies whose hostility had been intensified by pressure from the westward movement of American settlers.

The fear of meeting hostile Indians was one of the chief concerns of the members of the Bidwell-Bartleson party. Under the guidance of Thomas Fitzpatrick, who was well-acquainted with the Plains Indian tribes, they were able to avoid coming between rival native bands.

Nancy Wiegman

This bookshelf is not my bookshelf. This Nancy is Nancy Wiegman, interviewer extraordinaire.

Back in November Nancy interviewed Steve Ferchaud and myself about our new picture book biography of John and Annie Bidwell, and also a bit about The Miner Poet: Poems of Pres Longley. Then when she went from a half-hour to an hour format, she brought me back in along with my daughter, Jean Leek Ping. Jean writes a blog — Howling Frog Books–about the the great variety books that she reads.

So here is a link to the podcast of the interview at mynspr.org. And here is a link to the books.

On May 19th the Bidwell-Bartleson Party started for California. John Bidwell, as secretary of the group, kept a journal. Later, while at Bodega Bay, he tidied up his journal entries and sent them back to a friend in Missouri, who had them printed as a guidebook. This is the source of the quotes in this and future entries.

Wednesday, 19th. This morning the wagons started off in single file; first the 4 carts and 1 small wagon of the missionaries, next 8 wagons drawn by mules and horses, and lastly, 5 wagons drawn by 17 yoke of oxen. It was the calculation of the company to move on slowly till the wagon of Chiles overtook us.

Our course was west, leaving the Kanzas no great distance to our left, we traveled in the valley of the river which was prairie excepting near the margin of the stream. The day was very warm and we stopped about noon, having traveled about 12 miles. (Bidwell-Bartleson Party, ed. by Doyce B. Nunis, p. 28-29)

The missionaries were led by Father Pierre Jean De Smet, a Belgian Jesuit who spent many years working among the American Indians. In 1841 he was on his way, with two other priests and three lay brothers, to minister to the Flathead Indians. He established St. Mary’s Mission on the Bitterroot River near Missoula, Montana. Bidwell described him as follows:

He was genial, of fine presence, and one of the saintliest men I have ever known, and I cannot wonder that the Indians were made to believe him divinely protected. He was a man of great kindness and great affability under all circumstances; nothing seemed to disturb his temper.(Echoes of the Past, p. 114)

More information on Father De Smet can be found in this article from Historic St. Mary’s Mission and Museum.

From A Journey to California, 1841, by John Bidwell:

May, Tuesday 18th 1841. Having waited at this place (2 miles W. of Kanzas river) 2 days, and all the Company being arrived, except those heretofore mentioned, the Company was convened for the purpose of electing a Captain and adopting rules of government of the Company; when T. H. Green was chosen President–and J. Bidwell, Secretary.

After the rules were read and adopted, J. Bartleson was elected Captain; it will be understood that Fitzpatrick was Capt. of the Missionary Company and pilot of the whole. Orders were given for the company to start in the morning, and the meeting was broken up.  (Bidwell-Bartleson Party, edited by Doyce B. Nunis, p. 28)

The Bidwell-Bartleson Party (as it is usually known today) was the first group of emigrants from the United States to make a planned overland journey to California. They left Missouri with the aim of reaching California. Half the group was persuaded to take the Oregon Trail to Oregon instead (which was the safer option), but Bidwell’s group, consisting of 32 men, one woman and her baby, maintained their determination to achieve their goal.

Bidwell and his friends traveled part of the way with Father Pierre Jean de Smet’s missionary party. They were lucky to have made this connection, because Father de Smet had hired a guide, Thomas Fitzpatrick, a man with many years experience in the Far West.