Glacier County chief., 1939-03-10
ADVENTUROUS
AMERICANS
By
Elmo Scott Watson
The Redoubtable
Mime. La Cornpt
Elmo Scott Watson

A04AA4Ss S0 SVAAARs
N THE year 1874 daughter was
born to the La Flammes,
French family living at St. Joseph
on Lake Michigan. While she was
still a little girl. her parents moved
to Mackinac and there she grew up
and married her first husband.
Pilette de Sainte Ange.
In l765 Sainte Ange took his wife
to the site of the future city of Chi
cago where they lived for several
years. After time she became IA
miliar with the language Of the
Pottawatomies and other tribes,
studying their character and acquir-
ing a great influence over them.
When Sainte Ange died, his widow
moved to the French village of Ca.
hokia on the Mississippi. She soon
married again, this time to = Ca
madam named La Compt. During
the Revolution, the Cahokia viIlag-
ers, whom George Rogers Clark had
won to the American cause. were
in constant danger Of attack by the
! Indian allies Of the British, as were
the American settlers in the early
days of the Territory Of Illinois.
Many times Nine. La Compt
was awakened in the dead of night
by Indian friends who urged her to
seek safety in St. Louis. But, in
stead of fleeing, Nine. La Compt in
variably set out alone to meet the
hostiles and dissuade them from
their purpose. Sometimes she
stayed with them for days before
she succeeded. More than once the
fearful villagers of Cahokia. armed
and ready for an attack, saw a
strange procession coming out OF
the woods band of warriors with
their war-paint freshly washed
away and humbly obeying the or
ders given them by the tall white
woman marching ahead of themi
After rearing large family Of
children, Nine. La Compt was wild
owed again. Again she was mar
ried, this time to an American
named Tom Brady. She outlived
him for 30 years and died in Ca.
hokia in ls43 at the age Of 100 years.
A Monument to Failure
I ONG'S PEAK, the highest in Col.
II orado, is not only memorial
to its first American discoverer,
Maj. Stephen H. Long, of the En-.
gineers Corps Of the United States
army, but it is also a monument to
a great failure. E
In 1919 the United States govern
ment was preparing to send great
army into the Upper Missouri coun-
try to establish military post TO
protect and extend the fur trade.
The expedition was also expected to
add to the scientific knowledge Of
the West and Major Long was di-
rected to take with him q group of
scientists for this purpose.
With a small and inadequately
supplied force. he crossed the plains
to the base of the Rockies and spent
some time exploring that region.
| When he returned he made a re-
port that was destined to become
famous for its Inaccuracies. 'In re-
gard to this extensive section of
the country" he wrote. I'VE do not
hesitate in giving our opinion that
it is almost wholly unfit for cultiva.
ton, and Of course uninhabitable by
people depending upon agriculture
for their subsistence"
More than any other man, per.
haps. he was responsible FOR fixing
upon the maps of the United States
Of that time the words 1.-THE Great
American Desert" and those words
retarded development of that coun-
try for nearly half century.
Sharpshooter and Spy
" IRGINIA MOON of Memphis.
v Tenn, was l6 years old and 60
ing to school in Ohio when the Civil
war broke out. She Immediately
asked for passage through the Union
lines to Tennessee and was refused
So, when the Union flag was first
raised on the school grounds, she
shot every star out of it, one by one
The results we're immediate and
most favorable-she was expelled
from school and sent home to Mem.
phis, which was Just exactly what
she wanted.
She was not only good marks.
woman-she was pretty and self
confident. Her beauty and other
charms enabled her to become en-.
gagged to l6 young Confederate army
recruits. all at the same time. This
wasn't very honest. she admitted
years later, but ii made the young
soldiers feel good and didn't make
her feel bad. =
As the war went on, Gen. Sterling
Price appointed her special agent
and she carried dispatches and
other information back and forth
from Union to Confederate territory.
Several times she was arrested By
Northern soldiers. being acquitted
on one occasion but found guilty and
served short sentences on others.
Che una the onlv Nonfo<3..~s.