AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Edward Hargraves (October 7, 1816 – October 29, 1891) was famous for starting the Australian gold rush. He found gold in Sydney in 1851. He was a shopkeeper, sailor and adventurer. He first started looking for gold in California, but was not successful.
When he arrived in Sydney, he didn’t even visit his family. He went straight to the Blue Mountains to look for gold. After his first discovery, Australia became more popular due to the gold rush. Although Hargraves was very famous and rich, he lived so lavishly that he became broke by 1860.
Hargraves' mother (Elizabeth Nee Whitcombe) and father (John Edward Hargraves) sent Hargraves to Brighton Grammar School in England. When he was 14, he travelled over water to Sydney, Australia. He arrived in Sydney in 1832. He worked on a property at Bathurst, collecting tortoise shells. Before Hargraves became famous, he left his wife (Elizabeth Hargraves) and bought his own piece of land on Manning River. He took over a shop near his property.
Hargraves' main achievement was discovering a large amount of gold, starting the gold rush of Australia. He believed that the geography of Bathurst was the same as California, so he began his search for gold there. John Lister, who had already found gold in California, helped Hargraves to find gold in Australia.
The two of them travelled to Summerhill Creek, where Hargraves first discovered gold. After the government found out about Hargraves’ discovery, they appointed him ‘Commissioner of Land’. They rewarded him with 10,000 pounds and a life pension, in exchange for the gold he discovered. The government of New South Wales made the announcement that gold was discovered on May 22, 1851. Hargraves was also responsible for conducting the gold mining in Ballarat, when the gold rush became more popular.
Between the years of 1853-1854, Hargraves travelled back to England, rich from his findings. When he was in England he met Queen Victoria and wrote a book (published in 1855) called "Australia and its Gold Fields". Hargraves lived such a luxurious life that he was soon very poor. Hargraves travelled back to Australia, seeking the help of the government to help with his financial situation, but no one he asked would give him money.
Hargraves had two sons and three daughters. He died in Sydney in 1891.
David Fleay
David Howells Fleay (January 6, 1907 - August 7, 1993) was an Australian naturalist (someone who studies nature). He was one of the first people to come up with the idea of breeding endangered species in captivity, so they would not go extinct (die out) in the wild. He was also the first person to succeed in breeding platypuses in captivity.
Fleay now has a wildlife park named after him in Queensland.
He died on 7 August 1993 aged 85.
Fleay was born in Ballarat, Victoria, in Australia. His parents were William and Maude Fleay.
As a young child, David became interested in the Australian bush and its wildlife at an early age. His mother was also interested in these things, but his father did not want David to spend his time thinking about Australian wildlife.
Fleay was educated at Pleasant Street State School and Balart Grammar School. His first job was at his father’s pharmacy.
Fleay then taught at Balart Church of England Grammar School until 1927, when he moved to Melbourne. There, he taught while studying for a Bachelor of Science degree and a Diploma of Education at Melbourne University.
While at Melbourne University, Fleay met a science student named Mary Sigrid Collie. They got married in 1931.
In the early 1930s, Fleay went to Tasmania to try to capture Thylacines (also called Tasmanian tigers). He was not able to find any Thylacines in the wild. So he decided to run a breeding program with Thylacines in zoos. He wanted to breed more Thylacines to save them from becoming extinct. But the Tasmanian government did not allow Fleay to run this program. We now know that the last definite sight of a Thylacine in the wild was in 1930. By 1936, the last Thylacine living in a zoo died, and this species was extinct.
By 1934, Fleay was very well known as a 'wildlife man.' He was chosen to design and direct a new section at the Melbourne Zoo. He worked there for three years, and achieved some important scientific 'firsts.' He was the first person to breed, in captivity, several types of endangered animals, including:
In 1958, Fleay brought three platypuses to New York's Bronx Zoo. Later that year, he was given some money by the New York Zoological Society, and used it to build a new, better platypusary (a place to take care of platypuses) in West Burleigh, Australia.
Fleay wrote a book called "Living with Animals", which was published in 1964.
Fleay was given many awards for his work and research.
In 1960, he was named a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), an award given by the British King or Queen to reward work in the arts and sciences.
Fleay was chosen to be an Associate of the Queensland Museum in 1978.
In 1980, he was named a member of the Order of Australia (AM), an award given by the Queen of Australia for doing important work in Australia.
Fleay's wife, Mary, died in 1987. Later, Fleay got married again. He had a daughter and two sons.
Fleay died in Brisbane, Australia, at the age of 85. In an obituary, the New York Times wrote: "As a conservationist, [Fleay] was outspoken and, as "The Daily Telegraph" put it, he 'strove to preserve native Australian fauna in the days when even koala bears were slaughtered in vast numbers for their fur.'"
Archie Roach
Archie Roach (Archibald William Roach), was born in 1956 at Mooroopna, Victoria, Australia. He is an aboriginal-Australian singer and songwriter. His songs are popular in the Australian Aboriginal community.
At the age of three or four, Roach was taken from his family by the Australian government. His two sisters were also taken away. After spending time in an orphanage, he was raised in Melbourne, Australia, by a white family, who had moved to Melbourne from Scotland.
As a teenager, Roach ran away from home to look for his biological parents. After running away, while homeless and abusing alcohol, Roach met his wife, musician Ruby Hunter. During the late 1980s, Roach and Hunter created a band named “Altogether” with other Aboriginal musicians.
In mid-2011, Roach was diagnosed with early lung cancer, and had one of his lungs removed. While recovering, he released his hit album “Into the Bloodstream.”
His album "Charcoal Lane" won an ARIA Award as the Best Indigenous Album of the Year. He was given an ARIA Award as the Best New Talent. The Rolling Stone Magazine listed it in the Top 50 Albums of 1992. "Looking for the Butter Boy" won three ARIA Awards in 1998.
In 2013, Roach won a Deadly Award for Album of the Year. He has also won two ARIA awards and a national Human Rights Award for his songs “Took the Child Away” and “Charcoal Lane.” Many of his songs talk about his experiences and the difficulties he has faced as an Aboriginal Australian.
In 2015 Roach was made a member of the Order of Australia.
John Flynn
John Flynn OBE (25 November 1880 – 5 May 1951) was an Australian Presbyterian minister. He began the Presbyterian Church of Australia. He also started the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, which brings medical care to people who live far away from doctors or hospitals. Flynn's portrait is on one side of the Australian 20 dollar note.
John Flynn was born in Moliagul in Victoria, Australia on November 25, 1880. His parents were Thomas Eugene Flynn and Rosetta Forsyth. Because his mother died while giving birth to him, John was raised by his mother’s sister in Sydney, Australia.
When he was 16, Flynn decided that he wanted to become a Presbyterian minister and study theology (religion) at the University of Melbourne. In 1911, he finished his training for the Presbyterian ministry and was officially ordained into the Presbyterian Church. He went to live and work in the Australian Outback, where many people had little access to medical care because they lived so far from large cities, doctors, and hospitals. In 1912, he created the Australian Inland Mission, which gave medical, spiritual, and other care to people in the Outback.
For many years, Flynn worked to get the support and money he needed to start an organization that would bring doctors and medical care by plane to people living in the Outback. With the help of Alf Traeger, Flynn was able to create the Aerial Medical Service in 1928. (Its name was later changed to the Flying Doctor Service, and then changed again to the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia). In its first year, the Aerial Medical Service flew 50 flights to 26 different places, giving medical care to 225 people. Over the next few years, Flynn worked to get the support the Aerial Medical Service needed to provide "flying doctors" to every part of Australia. By 1939, every state in Australia had an Aerial Medical Service. Now called the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the organization still exists today and has 21 bases throughout every part of the country. It provides medical care to 290,000 people every year.
Flynn became an officer of the Order of the British Empire on June 3, 1933.
Sidney Myer
Sidney Myer created Myer’s, one of the biggest department stores in Australia. He emigrated from Russia at the age of 20 and started off as a small merchant and went on to be the owner of a large chain store.
Simcha (Sidney) Myer Baevski was born on the February 8, 1878, in the Jewish section of Kritchev, Russia. He was the youngest of eleven children. He attended a primary school for Jewish children. While at school, he managed his mother’s shop and helped the shop be very successful.
When Myer was 20, he and his older brother, Elcon, moved to Australia. Myer arrived in Melbourne, Australia, as a Jewish refugee in August of 1899. He did not know English, and had almost no money and no visa. Soon after arriving, he changed his name to Sydney Myer in order to be more Australian.
The Myer brothers moved to Bendigo, a city in Victoria, Australia. There they started a small drapery business, where they sold fabrics of all different styles, colors, and sizes. Because they disagreed about whether their store should be open on Sundays, the brothers decided to stop working together. Sidney bought his brother's share of the business, and Elcon moved on to Melbourne.
As Myer's business became more successful, he opened a larger store in Bendigo, and new stores in Melbourne and Adelaide. Today, Myer's is one of Australia’s biggest department stores. Myer's is known for having fashionable clothing made by many different designers.
After he went to a performance at the Hollywood Bowl, a famous outdoor theater in California, Myer created the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. In 1929, Myer began to arrange free outdoor concerts by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, held at the Music Bowl. These free concerts are still held today, and are very popular.
Myer died on September 5, 1934. After his death, Myer's family set up the Myer Foundation, which receives millions of dollars every year from the Myer family. The Foundation supports programs that benefit Australia and help Australians in need.
Marcus Oliphant
Sir Marcus “Mark” Laurence Elwin Oliphant, commonly known as Marcus Oliphant, was an Australian physicist and humanitarian. He helped to develop nuclear weapons. He was involved with the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion.
Oliphant was born on October 8, 1901 in Kent Town, Adelaide, Australia. His father, Harold George “Baron” Oliphant, was a civil servant. His mother, Beatrice Edith Fanny Oliphant, was an artist.
After graduating from Adelaide High School in 1918, he was unable to get money to pay for university. He got a job cleaning floors at a jewellery store. He was soon able to study at the University of Adelaide. He was interested in medicine, but Kerr Grant, the physics professor, offered him a place in the Physics Department. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1921.
Oliphant attempted to build a cyclotron at the University of Birmingham. The completion of it was postponed by the World War II in Europe in 1939.
He was involved with the development of radar with John Randall and Harry Boot. They created a completely new design, the cavity magnetron, which made microwave radar possible.
His most important achievement was being involved with the development of the atomic bomb. He reported that it was possible, and achievable as early as 1943. He spread his research in the United States, which led to the development of the Manhattan Project, led by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Oliphant died on July 14, 2000 in Canberra, Australia.
Many places and things are named after Oliphant. There is the Oliphant building at the Australian National University, the Mark Oliphant Conservation Park, a South Australian high schools science competition, the Oliphant Wing of the Physics Building at the University of Adelaide, and a high school in Munno Para West, South Australia.
He is known for the co-discovery of deuterium, tritium, helium-3 and nuclear fusion and for the development of microwave radar.
He achieved many awards over the course of his life.
Edward Dunlop
Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, AC, CMG, OBE (12 July 19072 July 1993) was an Australian surgeon. He was known for his leadership while being held as a Prisoner of war by the Japanese during World War II.
Ernest Edward Dunlop was born 12 July 1907 in Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia. Dunlop grew up in the Wangaratta area. He was the son of James and Alice Dunlop and younger brother of Alan. His mother became ill after his birth, so his two twin aunts cared for him. He worked on the family farm at Sheepwash Creek. He then became a school cadet. He continued his part-time military service until 1929. In 1928 Dunlop qualified as a pharmacist and earned many awards. In 1934 he qualified as a doctor with first class honours. It was then earned his nickname ‘Weary’. He then worked in The Royal Melbourne Hospital. In 1937 he worked in the Royal Children's Hospital.
Growing up, Dunlop was very good at most sports. This included rugby and boxing. He became the first Victorian player in the national rugby union team, the Wallabies. He was the only Victorian in the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame. He later became a very successful boxer.
In 1937, he met his future wife Helen Ferguson. Since she a student he went to England to take up postgraduate studies. When World War II broke out Dunlop became a specialist surgeon to the Emergency Medical Services. He then enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corps, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. While Dunlop was in the Middle East, Helen joined him and they became engaged. In 1943, Ernest became imprisoned in Singapore. He was then sent to Thailand by the Japanese. In Thailand he worked at the Burma Railway as a medical officer. After the war he got married.
In World War Two, Dunlop was posted to the Middle East. There he developed a mobile surgical unit that could move around to treat wounded soldiers. He also served in Crete and Greece. He fought in the battle of Tobruk. In 1942, Dunlop was sent to Java in Indonesia to treat wounded allied soldiers. Three years later, he was captured by the Japanese and became a prisoner of war. Dunlop was sent to Thailand-Burma Railway (AKA the death railway) between Bangkok and Rangoon. His medical skills, compassion and incredible courage in standing up to the Japanese inspired his fellow Prisoners Of War to keep going.
He received many awards which include:
John H. Sununu
John Henry Sununu (born July 2, 1939) served as the 75th Governor of New Hampshire (1983–89) and later White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush.
He is the father of John E. Sununu, a former senator from New Hampshire and Chris Sununu, the Governor of New Hampshire. Sununu was the chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party from 2009 to 2011.
Brian Schweitzer
Roy Romer
Roy R. Romer (born October 31, 1928, in Garden City, Kansas, United States) is an American politician. He was the 39th Governor of Colorado. He also served as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District from 2001 to 2006.
Richard Lamm
Richard Douglas "Dick" Lamm (born September 12, 1935) is an American politician, writer, Certified Public Accountant, college professor, and lawyer. He served three terms as 38th Governor of Colorado as a Democrat (1975–1987) and ran for the Reform Party's nomination for President of the United States in 1996.
He is currently the Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies at the University of Denver.
Walter Dale Miller
Walter Dale "Walt" Miller (October 5, 1925 – September 28, 2015) was an American politician with the Republican Party. He served as 29th Governor of South Dakota from 1993 to 1995. He assumed the duties of the governorship upon the death of George S. Mickelson.
Frank Farrar
Frank Leroy Farrar (born April 2, 1929) is a former American politician. He was the 24th Governor of South Dakota. A Republican. He served as the state's attorney general from 1963 to 1969, and as governor from 1969 to 1971.
Philip H. Hoff
Philip Henderson Hoff (June 29, 1924 – April 26, 2018) was an American politician. He is from the U.S. state of Vermont. He served as the 73rd Governor of Vermont from 1963 to 1969. At the time of his election, he was the first Democrat elected Governor of Vermont in 108 years.
Hoff was born in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. His father worked in the insurance industry and at the Massachusetts General Court. Philip was a star high school football player at Turners Falls High School.
Hoff went to Williams College and Connecticut College and graduated cum laude in 1948. Hoff married Joan Brower in 1948. He later attended Cornell Law School, graduating in 1951. The Hoffs moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1951.
Hoff died at a retirement center in Shelburne, Vermont on April 26, 2018 at the age of 93.
F. Ray Keyser Jr.
Frank Ray Keyser (August 17, 1927 – March 7, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician from Vermont. He served as Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1959 to 1961, and 72nd Governor of Vermont from 1961 to 1963.
Emerson, Lake and Powell (album)
Emerson, Lake & Powell is the debut and only studio album by Emerson, Lake & Powell. The album was released in 1986.
ITV (TV channel)
ITV is a commercial television channel in the United Kingdom. Previously a network of separate regional television channels, ITV currently operates in England, Wales, Scotland and the Channel Islands. From 2001 until 2013, the channel was called ITV1.
In 2004, Granada acquired Carlton Communications to form ITV plc.
ITV was launched in 1955 as the second TV channel in the United Kingdom.
ITV name was only used in England, Wales, Southern Scotland and Isle of Man until Channel Television adopted the name in January 2006, bringing it to the Channel Islands.
The licencees that used the ITV1 brand were Anglia Television, Border Television, Carlton Television, Central Independent Television, Channel Television, Granada Television, ITV Wales & West, London Weekend Television, Meridian Broadcasting, Tyne Tees Television, Westcountry Television and Yorkshire Television.
The network production arms of the ITV-plc owned licencees have been gradually combined since 1993 to eventually form ITV Studios.
In the English regions, the channel has been known from 2006 until 2013 as ITV1 and since 14 January 2013 as ITV at all times.
The "ITV Wales" name is not used overnight.
Areas without full ITV branding:
From the founding of the ITV Network in 1955, it was known nationally as Independent Television (later ITV) and locally by the regional branding of the local ITV franchise operator.
In 1989, the ITV Association set out a basic presentation package with a new "ITV" logo, which included idents, promotions and general on and off air design, and an edit of this package was designed for each franchise holder. The dual branded idents included a large "ITV" logo, in which the "V" contained part of the franchise's logo, and written below the logo in a grey capitalised font was the name of the regional broadcaster. However, only half of the regional broadcasters opted to use the package, which had completely failed by 1997.
In 1999, another second common presentation (once again using dual-branding with the ITV name) was launched, under the theme, "TV from the Heart".
By 2001, all eleven franchises of England and Wales were owned by either Granada plc or Carlton Communications, and a new common name, ITV1, was launched on 11 August 2001 to coincide with digital channel ITV2. The existing "Hearts" idents were simply re-edited.
In January 2006, the channel adopted a new on-air look to coincide with the launch of ITV4, designed mainly to improve cross-channel promotion across ITV's multichannel presence. The new logo brought ITV1, ITV2 and ITV3 in line with ITV4's, and had been observed on various billboard ads in the UK when the new identity was first used on-screen on 16 January 2006.
In 2005, ITV plc introduced a new channel branding called ITV Day, used to identify ITV1 between 9.25am and 6.00pm. ITV Day was treated as a separate entity to ITV1 and featured its own presentation set focusing using the colours of red, orange and yellow and featured scenes of typical "daytime" activities. Promotions were used in a similar format to ITV1, and all daytime programmes advertised within ITV1 hours were branded with the ITV Day logo. A similar "UTV Day" branding was adopted in Northern Ireland.
On 15 November 2012, it was announced that as part of a major rebranding, ITV1 was renamed back to its previous name, ITV. In addition to this, ITV had a new colour-changing logo stylised as handwriting, that changed colour depending on the programming it is used on. It was revealed that the logo had green and purple for "Dancing on Ice", and green and brown for "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!". The overhaul is linked to ITV's attempt to cut costs, curb debts and reduce the company's reliance on advertising. This overhaul of their brand affected all ITV plc channels and online services. The rebrand went live on 14 January 2013, at the same time as the other ITV channels. Also for the first time in its history, a digital on-screen graphic (DOG) was introduced.
ITV has two spin-off channels, ITV HD and ITV +1, which both launched in 2009. ITV HD was originally available in 2006 for a while for some programming, but officially launched in 2009.
ITV (as UTV) is widely available in the Republic of Ireland on cable and MMDS, as well as being received directly in areas bordering Northern Ireland, or in coastal areas from Wales (as ITV Wales). It is also available on cable and IPTV in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Since 27 March 2013, ITV London has been offered by British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) to members of HM Forces and their families around the world, replacing the BFBS3 TV channel, which already carried a selection of ITV programmes.
2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted
"2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" (sometimes called "Gangsta Party") is the second single from American rapper 2Pac's fifth studio album "All Eyez on Me". The song was a duet sung by 2Pac and Snoop Dogg. It was released as a promotional single and was written by 2Pac, Snoop Dogg and Daz Dillinger.
It is sometimes referred to as "Gangsta Party" because of the line "ain't nuthin but a gangsta party" in the chorus. The song was also featured on 2Pac's "Greatest Hits" in 1998 and a remix of the song was featured on the album "Nu-Mixx Klazzics" in 2003.
On April 15, 2012, the song was played at the Coachella Festival with Snoop Dogg performing a duet with a virtual version of 2Pac.
Kristin Cavallari
Kristin Cavallari (born January 5, 1987) is an American television and movie actress. She was in the television series "Laguna Beach". She was also in the series "The Hills".
Cavallari was born in Denver, Colorado. She was raised in Barrington, Illinois.
Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Fonseca (born January 7, 1987) is an American actress. She acts in both movies and television. She played Colleen Carlton in "The Young and the Restless". She also played Alexandra in "Nikita".
Fonseca was born in Oakland, California.
Pasig
Pasig, officially the City of Pasig () is a city of Metro Manila that can be found in the Philippines. It was capital of the province of Rizal prior to the formation of the National Capital Region. The Demonym of Pasig is "Pasigueño". The current mayor of this city is Robert "Bobby" C. Eusebio. The Eusebio family has been in the government for a long time starting from Robert's father Vicente Eusebio.
The Augustinians built Pasig City in 1572 making it one of the oldest towns in the Philippines. But after the Government combined Pasig with Rizal making Pasig the capital of Rizal province in June 1901. It became the provincial capital, not until Metro Manila is formed in 1975 by the Metro Manila Commission making Pasig a city. Soon the government considered Pasig as a highly urbanized city. President Fidel V. Ramos signed it to become a law after five months on December 8, 1994. Pasig residents approved this through a referendum on January 21, 1995.
Pasig recognizes the efforts of its residents and students, that’s why they give back school supplies yearly to public school students. Examples are free complete PE uniforms from shirts to rubber shoes and even complete school uniforms. The public government also enhanced the PCIST (Pasig City School of Science and Technology) by adding more school courses and programs such as auto mechanic, soldering, welding, refrigerator fixing and more. They have also expanded the Rainforest park in Pasig that is also for the youth of the city. The expansion of RAVE (Rainforest Adventure Experience) such as adding libraries, music halls, auditoriums and a sports center.
Because the Pasig River is rich in water lilies, the government made livelihood programs of making baskets from water lilies and other recycled items. The government also made a market for these businesses to give them a regular place to trade. They also provided jobs for smart and hardworking students who wanted to work on their summer vacation. SPES (Summer Program for Employment Services) program accepts 2,000 students who apply and is given an opportunity to work for the government. The government also gives job fairs 4 times a year for people who are having a hard time to look for a job with the college courses that they studied.
One of the most famous parks in Metro Manila is RAVE or the Rainforest Adventure Experience. It opened in 1977 and was known as the Pasig Central Park. Right now the park consists of many different recreational activities and a mini zoo. It also has an Olympic-sized swimming pool which is offered for the citizens of Pasig with a lower price. Pasig is also known for the place Ace Water Spa. The spa is an all-weather indoor place that has a pool that uses water for helping people feel better.
The Philippines is also known to have huge malls around the country and because Pasig is the center of Metro Manila it can access a lot of nearby malls and the malls inside its city itself such as SM Megamall. SM Megamall is the 3rd biggest SM (Shoe Mart) mall in the country owned by the famous . “Kapitolyo” is also famous for its neighborhood filled with restaurants and bars that can be found in East Capitol Drive of the “Barangay”. Pasig is also occupied by food parks that a person with good taste in food will enjoy. As for historical places, one famous place is the “Bahay na Tisa” which translates to House of Chalk. It is called House of Chalk because of its white walls. In Martial Law this house was used for two party lists of the Martial Law to hold their meetings and gatherings. The first Marian Parish is also found in the middle of Pasig called Immaculate Conception Cathedral. It was founded by the Augustinians (the founders of Pasig as well) in 1572. Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was the original a female patron of the church.
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson, (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. His career as a frontiersman involved four chief occupations: mountain man, guide, Indian agent, and officer in the United States Army. He helped to open the American West to settlement. In his day, he was a celebrity known far and wide in the United States. In modern America, he is remembered as a folk hero.
Carson began his adult life in 1829 as a mountain man. He trapped beaver about ten years for the fur trade. During these years, Carson became an "Injun killer" he was forced to kill many Native Americans to protect himself from attack, theft, and murder. Carson became known as one of the greatest of "Injun killers" through novels, newspaper accounts, and other media. When the fur trade died out in the 1840s, Carson looked for other work.
In 1842, Army officer John Charles Frémont hired Carson to guide him on three separate expeditions into the West. All three expeditions involved mapping and describing remote and uncharted areas of the West. These expeditions were hugely successful. Frémont's reports to the government made Carson a frontier hero, and were read by many Americans. Carson became a celebrity throughout the United States. His adventures were turned into stories that were published in paper-covered books called dime novels. These cheap, popular books made him more famous than ever.
In 1853, Carson became an Indian agent in northern New Mexico. His job was to keep the Utes and Apaches at peace. He saw to it that they were treated with honesty and fairness, and that they got the food and clothing they needed. In 1861, the American Civil War broke out. Carson resigned his position as Indian agent, and joined the Union Army. As a lieutenant, he led the New Mexico Volunteer Infantry. His forces fought Confederates at Valverde, New Mexico. The Confederates won this battle, but were later defeated. Most of Carson's time in the Army was passed training recruits.
Carson served in several wars and battles with the southwestern tribes during this time. He rounded-up and moved Apaches and Navajos from their homelands to government lands called reservations. Carson was promoted to the rank of colonel. Late in life, he was promoted to brigadier general, and given command of Fort Garland in Colorado. After about two years. Carson left the military because of illness. He died in 1868 at Fort Lyon, Colorado. He is buried in Taos, New Mexico, next to his third and last wife Josefa Jaramillo.
Carson was described by his contemporaries as a "small, stooped-shoulder" man with brown to red hair, blue eyes, and a strong but spare frame. He was said to be about 5 foot 7 inches. He was a modest gentleman. Most of his contemporaries were astonished that such a slight, inconspicuous man had accomplished so much among the Native Americans and wild animals on the western frontier.
In 1847, General William Tecumseh Sherman met Kit Carson in Monterey, California. Sherman wrote: "His fame was then at its height, ... and I was very anxious to see a man who had achieved such feats of daring among the wild animals of the Rocky Mountains, and still wilder Indians of the plains ... I cannot express my surprise at beholding such a small, stoop-shouldered man, with reddish hair, freckled face, soft blue eyes, and nothing to indicate extraordinary courage of daring. He spoke but little and answered questions in monosyllables."
Colonel Edward W. Wynkoop wrote: "Kit Carson was five feet five and one half-inches tall, weighed about 140 pounds, of nervy, iron temperament, squarely built, slightly bow-legged, and those members apparently too short for his body. But, his head and face made up for all the imperfections of the rest of his person. His head was large and well-shaped with yellow straight hair, worn long, falling on his shoulders. His face was fair and smooth as a woman's with high cheekbones, straight nose, a mouth with a firm, but somewhat sad expression, a keen, deep-set but beautiful, mild blue eye, which could become terrible under some circumstances, and like the warning of the rattlesnake, gave notice of attack. Though quick-sighted, he was slow and soft of speech, and posed great natural modesty."
Lieutenant George Douglas Brewerton made one coast-to-coast dispatch-carrying trip to Washington, D.C. with Carson. Brewerton wrote: "The Kit Carson of my "imagination" was over six feet high a sort of modern Hercules in his build with an enormous beard, and a voice like a roused lion ... The real Kit Carson I found to be a plain, simple ... man; rather below the medium height, with brown, curling hair, little or no beard, and a voice as soft and gentle as a woman's. In fact, the hero of a hundred desperate encounters, whose life had been mostly spent amid wilderness, where the white man is almost unknown, was one of Dame Nature's gentleman ..."
Carson was illiterate (he could not read or write). He was embarrassed by this, and tried to hide it. He was impressed by gentlemen who could read and write however. In 1856, he told his life story to an Army officer who wrote it down. Carson told the officer that he left school at an early age: "I was a young boy in the school house when the cry came, Injuns! I jumped to my rifle and threw down my spelling book, and thar it lies."
Carson enjoyed having other people read to him. He liked the poetry of Lord Byron. Carson thought Sir Walter Scott's long poem, "The Lady of the Lake" was "the finest expression of outdoor life." He also liked a book about William the Conqueror. The Conqueror's favorite oath was "By the splendor of God". Carson used this oath as his own, and was known to never have used anything stronger.
Carson learned to write "C. Carson" late in life. It was very difficult for him. He made his mark on official papers, and this mark was then witnessed by a clerk. Carson easily spoke English, Spanish, and French. He could speak many Native American languages, including Navajo, Apache, and Comanche. He also knew the sign language used by mountain men. Very late in life, he learned to read to a certain extent, and to recognize his name when it appeared in print.
Kit Carson was born in Kentucky, but his family moved to Missouri when he was a baby. In Missouri, the family was in danger from Native American attacks, and they were forced to find ways to protect themselves. After his father's death in 1818, Kit's mother remarried. The boy became a wild teenager. His stepfather put him to work in a saddle-making shop in Franklin, Missouri.
Carson was born in a log cabin at Tate's Creek, Madison County, Kentucky on Christmas Eve 1809. His parents were Lindsay (or Lindsey) Carson and his second wife, Rebecca Robinson. Lindsay had had five children by his first wife Lucy Bradley, and ten more children by Rebecca. Kit was their sixth.
Lindsay Carson had a Scots-Irish Presbyterian background. He was a farmer, a cabin builder, and a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. He also fought Native Americans on the frontier. Two fingers on his left hand were shot away in a battle with the Sauk and Fox tribes.
The Carsons moved to Boone's Lick, Howard County, Missouri when Kit was about one year old. They knew the Daniel Boone family. Lindsay's oldest son William married Boone's grand-niece, Millie Boone, in 1810. Their daughter Adaline became Kit's favorite playmate.
The Carson family was always in danger of Native American attacks in Missouri. They had to be alert. Cabins were "forted". This means that they had tall fences built around them called stockades. These stockades made the people inside safe from attack. During the day, men worked in the fields near the cabins. Some men had weapons, and protected the workers. These men were ready to kill any Native American who attacked. Carson wrote in his "Memoirs": "For two or three years after our arrival, we had to remain forted and it was necessary to have men stationed at the extremities of the fields for the protection of those that were laboring."
One day in 1818, Lindsay Carson was clearing a field when a tree limb fell on him. He was killed instantly. Kit was about 8 years old. His mother took care of her children alone for four years. They lived in great poverty. She then married Joseph Martin, a widower with several children.
Carson did not get along with his stepfather. He became a wild and uncontrollable teenager. His stepfather apprenticed him to David Workman, a saddle maker in Franklin, Missouri. Kit was a boy in his middle-teens. He wrote in his "Memoirs" that Workman was "a good man, and I often recall the kind treatment I received."
Carson did not like making saddles, and ran away from home in 1826. He traveled over the Santa Fe Trail with mountain men. In 1829, he joined with trapper Ewing Young on a trek to the Rocky Mountains. He learned much from Young about trapping.
Franklin, Missouri was at the eastern end of the Santa Fe Trail. This was a starting point for many settlers heading west. Kit heard wonderful stories about the west from the mountain men returning to the East. Kit did not like making saddles. In August 1826, he ran away from home, and went west with the mountain men. They traveled over the Santa Fe Trail to Santa Fe, New Mexico. They reached their destination in November 1826. Kit passed the winter in Taos, New Mexico with Mathew Kinkead, a mountain man and neighbor from Missouri. Taos would become Carson's home.
Workman put an advertisement in a local newspaper back in Missouri. He wrote that he would give a one cent reward to anyone who brought the boy back to Franklin. No one claimed the reward. It was a bit of a joke, but Carson was free. The advertisement featured the first printed description of Carson: "Christopher Carson, a boy about 16 years old, small of his age, but thick set; light hair, ran away from the subscriber, living in Franklin, Howard county, Missouri, to whom he had been bound to learn the saddler's trade."
Between 1827 and 1829, Carson worked as cook, translator, and wagon driver in the southwest. He also worked at a copper mining|mine near the Gila River in southwestern New Mexico. In later life, Carson never mentioned any women from his youth. There are only three specific women mentioned in his writing: Josefa Jaramillo, his third and last wife; a comrade's mother in Washington, DC; and Mrs. Ann White, a victim of Native American atrocities.
In August 1829, the nineteen year old Carson joined trapper Ewing Young and his mountain men on a fur-hunting expedition to Arizona and California. This was Carson's first professional job as a mountain man. Carson received much experience as a trapper on this expedition. Young is credited with shaping Carson's early life in the mountains.
Carson returned to Taos in 1829, and joined a wagon train rescue party. Although the perpetrators had fled the scene of atrocities, Young had the opportunity to witness Carson's horsemanship and courage. Kit passed the winter of 1827-1828 as Young's cook in Taos. Carson joined another expedition led by Thomas Fitzpatrick in 1831. Fitzpatrick and his trappers went north to the central Rocky Mountains. Carson would hunt and trap in the West for about ten years. He was known as a reliable man and a good fighter.
Carson traveled through many parts of the American West gathering furs. Men at this time wore hats made of beaver fur. Carson trapped beaver for the fur trade. He sometimes worked with famous mountain men like Jim Bridger and Old Bill Williams.
Carson's career as a mountain man began in 1829 when he joined Ewing Young's trapping expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Mountain men worked mostly in the Rocky Mountains. They worked for themselves, or sometimes with a partner or two, or for a large trading organization like the Hudson Bay Company.
A mountain man's life was not easy. He sometimes had to walk into deep, cold water to get a trapped beaver. He then had to remove the hide with the fur (the pelt). The mountain man kept these beaver pelts for many months. He then sold them in St. Louis, Missouri, or at a mountain man "rendezvous". With the money he collected, he bought fish hooks, flour, tobacco, and the other things he needed for life in the mountains.
The mountain men faced many hazards including biting insects, bad weather, and diseases of all kinds. There were no doctors in the lands where mountain men worked. These men had to set their own broken bones, tend their wounds, and nurse themselves. Native Americans were an ever-present danger. Even a friendly Native American could turn at once into an enemy. Most mountain men had a Native American wife or mistress. The mountain man's main food was buffalo. The mountan man dressed in deer skins that had stiffened after being left outdoors for a time. This suit of stiffened deer skin gave him some protection against the weapons of his enemies.
Grizzly bears were one of the mountain man's greatest enemies. Carson wrote in his "Memoirs" that he was hunting an elk alone in 1834. Two grizzly bears chased him up a tree. One bear tried to make him fall by shaking the tree. The bear was not successful, and finally went away. Carson returned to his camp as fast as he could. He wrote in his "Memoirs" that this incident was the scariest moment of his life: "[The bear] finally concluded to leave, of which I was heartily pleased, never having been so scared in my life."
Mountain men met every year in the second quarter of the 19th century for an event called a "rendezvous". The first "rendezvous" was held in 1825. These events were held in remote areas of the West like the banks of the Green River in Wyoming. The mountain men had a good time at these lively events. Native Americans often joined the gathering. Everyone played card games, danced, sang, told stories, made jokes, and had much to eat and drink. Sometimes mountain men married Native American women at a "rendezvous". The last rendezvous was held in 1840.
About 1840, the fur trade began to drop off. Well-dressed men in London, Paris, and New York City wanted silk hats instead of beaver hats. In addition, the mountain men had very nearly killed almost every beaver in North America. Trappers were no longer wanted or needed. Mountain man Robert Newell told Jim Bridger: "[W]e are done with this life in the mountains done with wading in beaver dams, and freezing or starving alternately done with Indian trading and Indian fighting. The fur trade is dead in the Rocky Mountains, and it is no place for us now, if ever it was."
Carson knew it was time to find other work. He wrote in his "Memoirs" that "Beaver was getting scarce, it became necessary to try our hand at something else." In 1841, he was hired at Bent's Fort in Colorado. This fort was one of the greatest buildings in the West. Hundreds of people worked or lived there. Carson hunted buffalo, antelope, deer, and other animals to feed these hundreds of people. He was paid one dollar a day. He returned to Bent's Fort several times during his life to again provide meat for the fort's residents. In April 1842, Carson went back to his childhood home in Missouri. He made this trip to put his daughter Adaline in the care of relatives.
Carson found much pleasure in killing Native Americans. He did not respect them, and thought those who committed outrages like murder, theft, and rape deserved the worst punishment possible. Carson's thoughts about Native Americans softened over the years, as he found himself more and more in their company. He became an Indian agent and a spokesman for the Utes.
Carson was nineteen when he set off with Ewing Young's expedition to the Rocky Mountains. In addition to furs and the company of free-spirited, rugged mountain men, he sought action and adventure. He found what he was looking for in killing and scalping Native Americans. Carson probably killed and took the scalp of his first Native American when he was nineteen years old, during Ewing Young's expedition. Carson was known to most 19th century Americans as an "Injun killer", chiefly through newspaper accounts and dime novels. Many of these works gave Carson's deeds and life a romantic cast. Excitement and thrills were heightened through exaggeration.
Carson hated Native Americans, especially those who had committed crimes such as rape, theft, and murder. He believed Native Americans could not be trusted, and should be punished. Mountain men often had to kill Native Americans to save their own lives. The young Carson's brutal and vicious notions about Native Americans is sometimes considered his greatest moral failing. Carson never killed Native American women and children though. He believed a brave man would never do this, and he scorned those men who did.
Carson's "Memoirs" are replete with stories about Native American encounters with the memoir writer. In January 1833, for example, warriors of the Crow tribe stole nine horse from Carson's camp. Carson and eleven other men found the Crow camp after dark, and quietly led the horses away. Those men who owned the horses wanted to return to their own camp at once. Although Carson and two other men had not lost any horses, these three wanted to punish the Crows. Carson and his men fired their guns into the Crow camp, killiing almost every Crow. Carson wrote in his "Memoirs": "During our pursuit for the lost animals, we suffered considerably but, the success of having recovered our horses and sending many a redskin to his long home, our sufferings were soon forgotten."
The Blackfoot nation was a hostile tribe, and posed an ever-present threat to Carson's safety. A Blackfoot warrior once injured Carson in the shoulder. This was the worst injury he received in his life. He hated the Blackfeet, and killed them at every opportunity. Historian David Roberts has written: "It was taken for granted that the Blackfeet were bad Indians; to shoot them whenever he could was a mountain man's instinct and duty." The Blackfeet did not like whites. They were convinced whites were trying to take over their hunting grounds. In addition, the Blackfeet wanted the valuable horses owned by the whites.
Carson had several encounters with the Blackfeet, but his last battle with the Blackfeet took place in spring 1838. He was traveling with about one hundred mountain men led by Jim Bridger. In Montana territory, the group found a teepee with three Native American corpses inside. These three had died of smallpox. Bridger wanted to move on, but Carson and the other young men wanted to kill the Blackfeet.
They found the Blackfoot village, and killed ten Blackfeet warriors. The Blackfeet found some safety in a pile of rocks, but were driven away. It is not known how many Blackfeet died in this incident. Historian David Roberts writes: "[I]f anything like pity filled Carson's breast as, in his twenty-ninth year, he beheld the ravaged camp of the Blackfeet, he did not bother to remember it." Carson wrote in his "Memoirs" that this battle was "the prettiest fight I ever saw."
Carson's notions about Native Americans softened over the years. He found himself more and more in their company as he grew older. His thoughts about Native Americans became more understanding and more humane. He urged the government to set aside lands called reservations for their use. As an Indian agent, he saw to it that those under his watch were treated with honesty, fairness, and clothed and fed properly. Historian David Roberts believes his first marriage to an Arapaho women named Singing Grass, "softened the stern and pragmatic mountaineer's opportunism."
In killing Native Americans, Carson was making America safe for settlers heading west to build their homes, farms, and villages. He had the approval of the United States government and its citizens. In addition, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, the United States Congress, and President James K. Polk had developed and were working under a concept called Manifest Destiny. This concept stated that it was the will of God that the United States push America's western boundary to the Pacific Ocean at all costs. Manifest Destiny spurred the movement of American settlers to the West.
Carson was married three times. His first two wives were Native Americans. His third wife was Mexican. He was the father of ten children. Carson never wrote about his first two marriages in his "Memoirs". He may have thought he would be known as a "squaw man". Such men were not welcomed by polite society.