The Coolidge examiner., 1931-07-10

course, in the rhapSodies Of Jim's herolsm, on
which his reputation as a noted old liar rests.
One is not safe in discarding them entirely. Jim
was a mountain man, and the obligation to lie
gloriously is on him. When he borrows spec
tacle from some one else and dresses it up to
his grandeur he is merely observing the
convention Of the camp fire"
But to get to the career which inspired these
marvels of longbow drawing: According to his
own statement, Beckwourth was born in Fred
ericksburg, Va. on April 26, 179S, one of fam
lily of 13 children whose father officer
in the Revolutionary war. What he negects
to say is that his mother was coored, probably
a quadrOon, and almost certainly slave. That
Jim a muatto is known beyond question
of a doubt, for have the testimony of his
contemporaries to prove that 1t has also been
claimed that his father was an Irishman from
Maryland but this account agrees with the 9TH
er to his mother and to his being a mulatto
In his youth his father moved to St Louis and
Beckwourth relates that as one of the innu-
merable family hegras westward in the early
years of the Nineteenth century. But De Voto
says that if he went with his father to st.
Louis he went not as a might go. but as a
slave. ST. Louis was then frontier settlement
and Jim's Wild West adventures began almost
Immediately. He blockhouses being built
for the protection of the settlers and according
to his story, he saw neighbor children massacred
by the Indians. In 1872 he was apprenticed to
blacksmith to learn that trade. After several
disputes with his employer he finally succeeded
in becoming free from the obligation and We
next find him accompanying-in what capacity
he does not say-a military expedition up the
Mississippi to the present site of Gaena, Ill.,
where the leader of the party was sent to
make a treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians
which would allow the whites to work the lead
mines there This followed by a trip to
New Orleans where he narrowly escaped death
from yellow fever but returned to st. Louis
in time to have part in one of the most famous
expeditions OF the West.
In 1922 Gen. William Henry Ashley "a gen.
eral of the Missouri militia and lieutenant gov
ernOr of MissOuri with Andrew Henry, a vet
eran fur trader, had formed the Rocky Noun
tain Fur company. In that year Ashley and
Henry went on their first expedition up the
Missouri, Henry going as far as the mouth Of
the Yellowstone where he suffered the loss of a
number of men and most of his horses from
hostile Indians. Ashley returned to st. Louis
for more men and in the summer of 1923 again
started up the Missouri. The personnel of these
two expeditions is veritable who's who of old
time western nOtables, men who for the next
decade to make history in that gamorous
period when the fur trade was at its height.
here is the roster. Jeululdn SlnlIn lne AuleTl-
can UlyssesO, Thomas Fitzpatrick ("Fitz of
the Broken HANDY, Etienne Provo provo,
Utah, preserves his fame). William and Milton
Sublette Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass (the hero
of one of the real epics Of the old West), Robert
| Campbell, David Jackson and Johnson Gardner.
! Ascending the Missouri, Ashley was attacked
by the Ariwara Indians and again returned to
| st. Louis for more men. 1t is at this time that
! Jim Beckwourth steps into the picture. Accord
ing to his story, he went along as a valued
member of the expedition, on equal basis
with the others. But some authorities say that
Jim, the mulatto was nothing more than body
servant for Ashley De Voto expresses the be-
lief that his skill a blacksmith was respOn-
sible for his employment by Ashley. At any
rate he was sent among the Pawnee Indians
to purchase horses and there began the first
of his marvellous adventures among Indians
both friendly and hostile.
Later according to his account, Ashley took
him on several of his expeditions into the Rocky
mountains and this much-that he was with the
Ashley party and present at of those
famous gatherings the trapper's rendezvous,