Grand Rapids morning telegram., 1885-01-07
lcor. n T. snnl


In Plunas County there is fertile
mountain valley IN the heart OF the North
ern Slerras, where for some years Beck
woBrfh, the famous trapper, guide, Indian
chief and frontiersman, lived. The annals
OF western adventure contain no more IN
teFesting figure than swarthy jim Beck
sgourth. the disc0yerer, in 1851. Of this
mountain pass. The writer has met many
persons, army officers and civilians, who
knew BeckwOurth, and has talked with
gold hunters whom this fearless guide led
across the Sisrras in 1851.
Beckwourth was born in Fredericksburg,
Va. in 17Ss. His father had been an officer
in the Revolution. About 1906 the family
removed 20 Missouri and settled twelve
miles below St. Charles, in a region still
called Beckwourth's settlement When
only nineteen years old Jim Beckwourth be-
came the hunter for Colonel r. NJ. John
sons expedition to treat with the Sacs and
Foxes. and work lead mines in the Galena
region. Ii was not long before Beckwourth
joined General Ashley's Rocky Mountain
Fur Company. From 1917 until he started
for California in 1874, his life was a sue
cess on OF hairbreadth escapes, of fortunes
made and lost, and of Indian battles. He
served under Bent and Sublette in the
W est, and with General Jessup during the
Seminole war in Florida He even became
First Counselor of the Crow Nation, and
finally their Head Chief, leading them in
countless forays against the Sioux and
Blackteet. He always protected the per-
sons and property of the whites while he
was the ruler of the Crows. His popularity
with the tribe, whom he ruled with a rod
of iron. was due to his wonderful knowl-
edge of Indian nature and his unsurpassed
moss trooper instincts. He was never so
happy as when in the saddle, leading a war
party by night marches to assault Lipan
or Comanche encampments, or to stampede
their horses and dash away again
like whirlwind. One of the dozen or more
Indian names he had meant, in English,
" Enemy of Horses"
One of Beckwourth's famous feats was
accomplished about 1922 when he was near
the Snake River trapping beaver. He was
pursued by over two hundred Indians, and
ran all day without food or water, cover
ing it is believed, not less than ninety five
miles before he reached Sublette's Camp.
This feat ranks in the tales of the West
with Bent's famous ride twenty years
later. In 1896, while Beckwourth was in
ST. Louis and was still Chief of the Crows,
had been killed. They at once surrounded
Fort Cass with thousands of warriors to
take immediate vengeance. After much
parley, a truce of three months was
agreed upon until word could be sent to
BeckwOurth TO come and rescue the be-
leaguered fort, which contained 100000
worth Of goods. A trapper named Pappen
was paid II 900 TO deliver the message to
BeckwOurth, and the Crows encamped TO
await results. The fur company paid
Beckwourth 5000 and all expenses to re-
turn at once, and he rode, with two COM
panions, the entire distance in fifty days,
and saved the fort from destruction.
After this he traded in New Mexico, and
In 1874 led an expedition to California,
reaching Los Angeles in January, 1874. He
was one of the most active of the revolu-
tionists of 1916, under General Castro, be-
ing leader of the thirteen American rifle
men who first joined Castro. He was Lieu
tenant of the subsequent corps of 160 which
captured the pueblos of Santa Barbara and
Monterey, defeating Suffers forces. When,
in 1S47, war was declared in Mexico, Beck
wourth and his company of trappers, num-
bering less than dozen, collected over 800
horses in the Los Angeles region, and, start.
ing eastward, reached the Arkansas in
safety. He then carried dispatches from
Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe and other
points. On one occasion he rode 913 miles
in fifteen DAYS. In 1S4S he returned to
California.
Here he helped to bring TO justice the
perpetrators of the Reed murders near San
Miguel, where a respected English family
and their servants, eleven in all, were
killed. The ranch was twenty five miles
from the nearest house, and Beck
wourth was the person who discovered
+ the deed not an hour after it was COM
mitted. He rode seventy two miles that
/ night, and collected band of forty men,
I 20 whom twenty more were added next
I dav. They separated, and Beckwourth.
/ with twenty men, overlook the fourteen
desperadOes who had killed the family In
/ order 70 get one thousand dollars worth of
gold dust. In the attack two OF three of
the murCerers were killed and the others
we're captured. tried by lynch-law, and
shot. After this Beckwourth became a fa-
miliar figure at the gold camps of the
Sierras. from HangtOwn TO Shasta.
Bec<wourth was rather under medium
size. but possessed of great strength and
endurance. He was famous for his vivid
descriptive powers in telling of his adven-
lures He died in his lonely cabin +
score Of years ago. n vagrant of the will
/ derness. an uneducsted. kind hearted
/ froutiersman. less noble than Boone and
I Carson, yet not unworthy their companion