page_title: Jessie Benton Frémont
section_title: American West
hierarchical_section_title: Jessie Benton Frémont / American West
caption_attribution_description: John C. Frémont
context_page_description: Jessie Ann Benton Frémont was an American writer and political activist.
  Frémont's initial notability came from her family: she was the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton and the wife of military officer, explorer and politician, John C. Frémont. She wrote many stories that were printed in popular magazines of the time as well as several books of historical value. Her writings, which helped support her family during times of financial difficulty, were memoirs of her husband's, and her own, time in the American West—back when the West was an exotic frontier.
  A great supporter of her husband, who was one of the first two Senators of the new U.S. state of California and a Governor of the Territory of Arizona, she was outspoken on political issues and a determined opponent of slavery, which was excluded from the formation of California. By maintaining a high level of political involvement during a period that was extremely unfavorable for women, Jessie Benton Frémont proved herself to be years ahead of her time.
context_section_description: For a while after their marriage, Jessie and her husband lived on Army posts, until Frémont was assigned the task of exploring the West and scouting land for future U.S. territorial expansion. It was this assignment that began the couple's rise to fame.
  A reconciliation occurred between Jessie and her father when he promoted Frémont's famous explorations of the West. Senator Benton had been persuaded by his ailing wife to accept the marriage, and the couple moved into the Benton home. Frémont left his pregnant wife behind in the spring of 1842 to lead his first expedition to mark the trails West. He returned, however, days before the birth of their eldest child, Elizabeth Benton "Lily" Frémont, who was born November 15, 1842, in Washington D.C. He then headed off again and Jessie and the baby remained behind.
  Frémont became known as the "Pathfinder to the West", after James Fenimore Cooper's novel, the Pathfinder Jessie, intensely interested in the details of his expedition, became his recorder, making notes as he described his experiences. Adding human-interest touches to these printed reports, she wrote and edited best-selling stories of the adventures Frémont had while exploring the West with his scout, Kit Carson. Thus, she involved herself in her most happy life's work, interpreting her husband and his actions for a public eager for information about the opening of the West. Written during a time when the concept of Manifest Destiny was becoming increasingly popular, these narratives were received with great enthusiasm.
  Her husband was involved tangentially in the conquest of California, the annexation of which occurred as a result of the Mexican-American War. He served as the 3rd Military Governor, in 1847. At the time of the court-martial of Frémont, during which he attempted to defend his actions in the Bear Flag Revolt, Jessie gave birth to a son, Benton Frémont, on July 24, 1848, in Washington, D.C. The baby's death, within the year in St. Louis, she blamed on her husband's accuser, General Kearny.
  In 1849, Jessie and Lily made a harrowing and treacherous journey aboard ship to join Frémont in California. After disembarking and crossing the Isthmus of Panama, they boarded another vessel to San Francisco. With income from their gold mines, the Frémonts established a home and settled into San Francisco society. As a politically informed woman, Jessie was known to get involved in city politics and discuss with the men any issues that were of importance at the time.
caption: John C. Frémont
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