page_title: John Wesley Prowers
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: John Wesley Prowers / Career / Early career
caption_attribution_description: English: Daniel Jenks traveled to Colorado territory in 1859 in search of gold. While there, he made this sketch of Bent’s New Fort, which is one of the earliest known images of the fort.” Photo courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Dept. This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 16000666
context_page_description: John Wesley Prowers was an American trader, cattle rancher, legislator, and businessman in the territory and state of Colorado. Married to Amache Prowers, a Cheyenne woman, his father-in-law was a Cheyenne chief who negotiated for peace and was killed during the Sand Creek massacre.
  He began his career as a trader when he was eighteen years of age. After several years, he began buying cattle, the first man to drive cattle westward to Colorado. He was among the first white men to settle in southeastern Colorado. Known as the cattle baron of the Arkansas, he was the first known person to introduce Hereford cattle to Colorado and the first cattle rancher in the area. He raised horses and sheep and operated a farm, which supplied Fort Lyon.
  The Prowers House—which operated as a stagecoach station, general store, school, county office, and hotel—is one of the two Boggsville properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After the railroads came to the area, he moved to Las Animas and established a store, helped found a bank, and, with Charles Goodnight, co-founded a meat packing plant.
context_section_description: When he was eighteen years of age, he was hired by Robert Miller who was an agent for Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowas, Comanche, and Apache tribes of the upper Arkansas area. They traveled from Westport, Missouri to Bent's Fort in what is now Colorado. Their wagon contained annuity goods—sugar, oatmeal, bacon, salt, beans, coffee, cornmeal, and other goods—which Miller and Prowers passed out to Native Americans who came to the fort. Bent's Fort was a trading post where Native Americans traded buffalo robes and mountain men traded beaver skins for goods. Their customers included French-Canadians and Mexicans. He worked at Bent's Fort for seven years, from 1856 to 1863, as a trader who led wagon trains to and from Missouri, returning with supplies for Bent's Fort. From 1865 to 1871, he delivered government supplies from Leavenworth, Kansas to Fort Union. He also delivered supplies to Fort Laramie. He learned the Cheyenne language and was sometimes called upon to act as an interpreter. Respected by Native Americans and whites, he often provided background information about the lifestyle and issues of the indigenous people of Colorado to help whites understand their perspectives.
caption: A sketch of Bent's New Fort made in 1859 by Daniel Jenks who traveled to Colorado Territory in search of gold. Photo courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Department.
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