just back from an Indian war: His journals of the Black Hawk War are reprinted in a biography by his son. William Preston Johnston, The Life of Albert Sidney Johnston (New York, NY: Appleton, 1879), 33–42.
clutching the tail feathers of a black hawk: Trent and Hellman, The Journals of Washington Irving, 113.
“the most outrageous affray ever witnessed in a civilized country”: Thomas Hart Benton, “Senator Benton and Gen. Jackson,” September 10, 1813. Benton papers, LOC.
transferred away from combat assignments: Chambers, Old Bullion Benton, 54–56.
“any part of the Territory of Missouri”: “The Undersigned,” St. Louis Enquirer, November 10, 1819.
He also ran for political office and lost: Chambers, Old Bullion Benton, 81.
“Newspapers . . . what the Forum was in Greece and Rome”: Ibid., 82.
“I looked across the Pacific Ocean . . . better and safer route”: Benton, in an 1844 speech in St. Louis, was summarizing his reasons for objecting to the joint occupancy a quarter-century earlier. “Substance of Mr. Benton’s Speech,” Washington Globe, November 6, 1844.
sending a ship called Empress of China: The story is well told in Swift, Hodgkinson, and Woodhouse, “The Voyage of the Empress of China.”
“success will attend . . . Pacific”: “Texas,” St. Louis Enquirer, August 18, 1819.
he learned to read Spanish: JBF, Memoir, 9.
translated Mexican newspapers aloud: For example, his Senate speech on June 1, 1844. Appendix to Congressional Globe, 28th Congress, 1st Session, 498.
Senate business . . . documents himself: Benton, Thirty Years’ View, vol. 1, iv.
more than twenty African slaves: Ibid., ii.
“never been without”: Meigs, Life of Thomas Hart Benton, 324.
questioning whether he had paid property taxes: Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 11.
Bloody Island, that dueling ground: The duel and follow-up duel are reconstructed in Meigs, Life of Thomas Hart Benton, 105–13.
“deplorable . . . consent on both sides”: Benton, Thirty Years’ View, vol. 2, 148.
“Many remained at the doors and windows”: “St. Louis County Meeting,” St. Louis Enquirer, May 19, 1819.
Benton spoke against proposals that Missouri should be forced to abolish slavery: Ibid.
“dishonorable to the United States”: “Missouri Question,” St. Louis Enquirer, March 4, 1820.
“free negroes . . . intermarry with the whites”: Ibid.
He argued that the state could justly interfere: Brophy and Thie, “Land, Slaves, and Bonds.”
“When the South grew stormy . . . Northern aggression”: JBF to Lydia Maria Child, July–August 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 122.
“courage in the cause . . . of a more enduring nature”: Ibid.
“the grim Scotch Puritan atmosphere that dominated her own home”: JBF, Memoir, 21.
“a generous spirit . . . the oppressed”: Ibid.
she kept her word: Herr, Jessie Benton Frémont, 35.
“to think it good fortune to be free from owning slaves”: JBF to Lydia Maria Child, July–August 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 122.
“making them domineering, passionate, and arbitrary”: Ibid.
“were all freed, or born free”: JBF, Souvenirs of My Time, 97.
“T. H. Benton” of St. Louis with six slaves: Sixth Census of the United States, St. Louis Ward 4, St. Louis, Missouri, Roll 231, Page 144, Family History Library Film 0014858, accessed via ancestry.com.
“a great misfortune”: JBF, Memoir, 39.
“no end to the conceit, the assumption, the class distinction”: Ibid.
felt “miserably lost”: Ibid.
for April 9, 1840: The date is given in the New York Herald, April 13, 1840.
“very long . . . neck and sleeves”: JBF, Souvenirs of My Time, 21.
and fortysomething groom: He was so described in the New York Herald, April 4, 1840.
“Contrasted by my father’s superb physique . . . restless little eyes”: JBF, Souvenirs of My Time, 19–20.
“horrified . . . I meant to study . . . short-haired variety”: JBF, Memoir, 31.
clean-shaven . . . long in a fashionable style: An undated painting of a younger Frémont by George Peter Alexander Healy shows him with shoulder-length hair and no beard.
He did not . . . mention his age: This is clear because he still had not told his age to Jessie by 1846, when they had been married almost five years, and she asked him in a letter if he would disclose it. JBF to JCF, June 18, 1846, Herr and Spence, Letters, 24–7.
CHAPTER THREE: THE CURRENT OF IMPORTANT EVENTS
“clear, strong and harmonious . . . erect and manly form”: “The Inauguration,” Daily Madisonian, March 6, 1841.
researchers later identified more likely causes: Jane McHugh and Philip A. Mackowiack, “What Really Killed William Henry Harrison?” New York Times, March 31, 2014.
4½ Street near the Capitol: The address is given in a letter from Fremont to J. J. Abert, November 10, 1840. Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 84.
black velvet . . . swords . . . scroll: Details of the procession are from the Daily Madisonian, April 9, 1841.
“was something to see and remember”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 68.
“The funeral . . . my red-letter day”: Ibid.
beginning “without delay”: Abert to Frémont, June 4, 1841, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 96.
“old uniforms and gowns”: JBF, Memoir, 46.
“Go to your room and dress properly”: Ibid.
“The survey was a health-giving excursion . . . special complaint”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 68.
“was in a drawing room . . . any such thing”: JBF to Elizabeth Blair Lee, July 23, 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 118.
“Any delay of an open declaration . . . more difficult”: Gerdes to Fremont, November 7, 1841, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 102.
“would not let her remain in his house”: Spence and Herr, Letters, fn p. 120.
“Fear not for our happiness . . . we will find it yet”: JCF’s letter does not survive, but JBF quoted it to him in a letter on June 18, 1846. Herr and Spence, Letters, 24–7.
“The President . . . 12 and 3 o’clock.”: “The President of the United States,” Daily Madisonian, January 1, 1842.
“the dashing dweller . . . homespun costume”: “New Year’s Day,” Daily Madisonian, January 3, 1842.
blue velvet gown . . . ostrich feathers: Phillips, Jessie Benton Fremont, 61.
decorated with the image of an eagle, topped by a plume: The Corps of Topographical Engineers uniform is illustrated in Bray, Joseph Nicollet and His Map, 59.
“I felt . . . important political events”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 70.
“An Act to Authorize the Occupation of the Oregon River”: Senate Journal, January 11, 1825, 81, American State Papers.
hardy and well-armed settlers could be turned into a military force: This idea of “50,000 settlers with their 50,000 rifles” found expression in 1843 legislation, never passed. JBF, writing in an introduction to JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 13.
“undried copy . . . directly into the hands of the compositor”: Chambers, Old Bullion Benton, 293.
“Daily intercourse . . . unstinted devotion”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 72.
“I think it would be well . . . the end of time”: Chaffin, Pathfinder, 99.
“Upon its outside view . . . the design was unknown”: Benton, Thirty Years’ View, vol. 2, 178.
Colonel Abert, who said Frémont was not following procedure: Abert to Frémont, May 26, 1842, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 123.
“Fickle, changeable, cold, and uncomfortable”: “The Weather,” New York Herald, May 4,
1842.
more than six thousand people: “Great Cold-Water Mass Anniversary,” New York Herald, May 5, 1842.
he passed near the Broadway meeting hall: It was the Tabernacle, at Broadway and Worth Street, a few blocks north of the district where John did some of his shopping. Ibid.
“hundreds . . . the four broad aisles”: Ibid.
“young, lovely, and most beautiful women”: Ibid.
“first-class” chronometer: Voucher no. 20, 4 May 1842, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 140. Also J. J. Abert to Frémont, May 9, 1842, ibid., 123.
barometer in a leather case, and thermometers: Voucher no. 22, ibid., 141.
a district of camera sellers: In addition to the doctor who sold Frémont a camera at 263 Broadway, newspaper advertisements showed camera sellers in the early 1840s at Broadway and Chambers Street (New York Herald, April 25, 1842), 247 Broadway (New York Herald, November 20, 1844), and 72 Nassau Street (New York Herald, September 9, 1842).
“It is sun-painting”: “Miraculous Miniature Paintings,” New York Herald, April 25, 1842.
and paid $78.50: “Important Expedition,” Louisville Messenger, July 16, 1842. Also Subvoucher, New York, May 6, 1842, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 144.
sent an angry letter down the road: J. J. Abert to Frémont, May 9, 1842, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 123.
“It would have needed only a request . . . being of use to my father”: JBF, “The Origin of the Frémont Explorations,” Century Magazine, vol. 41, March 1891, 768.
“Mr. Frémont was gone . . . to make clear”: JBF, Memoir, 50.
“Young women . . . own destruction”: Leavitt, “Under the Shadow of Maternity.”
“translations . . . occupied my mornings”: JBF, Memoir, 38.
“an intolerable headache”: JBF, Memoir, second draft, 39.
lay for days “looking dead”: Ibid., 38–39.
CHAPTER FOUR: MISERIES THAT ATTEND A SEPARATION
assigned him to wind the chronometers: JCF, Report on an Exploration, 41.
“a shock of light curly hair standing up thick about his head”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 70.
John again disregarded army procedure: J. J. Abert to Frémont, July 8, 1842, Abert to P. Chouteau Jr. and Company, July 28, 1842, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 126–7.
run away from his youthful apprenticeship: Quaife, Kit Carson’s Autobiography, x.
“satisfaction for the trouble”: Ibid., 26.
IMPORTANT EXPEDITION . . . Columbia River”: The article, which appeared in number of papers, is attributed to the Missouri Reporter. “Important Expedition,” Louisville Messenger, July 16, 1842.
“though young . . . surveys of this kind”: Ibid.
June 26, in the New York Herald: Ibid.
of “Dresden chocolate”: Voucher no. 23, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 141.
148 pounds of tobacco: Voucher no. 31, ibid., 154.
“Our friends . . . smoking supper on the grass”: JCF, Report on an Exploration, reprinted in Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 192.
150 pounds of coffee: Ibid., 174.
“a loss that none but a traveller in a strange and inhospitable land can appreciate”: Ibid.
Kit Carson made out his will: Ibid., 224.
“I asked . . . let him go”: Ibid., 226.
“The observations of the savage appeared reasonable”: Ibid., 229.
“a bloody pair of trousers . . . still in the pocket”: Charles Preuss, diary entry, August 1, 1842, in Gudde and Gudde, eds., Exploring with Frémont, 32.
“numerous strange instruments . . . the sun and stars”: JCF, Report on an Exploration, in Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 225.
a fresh supply of coffee: Ibid., 174.
“we were obliged to watch . . . culminating point”: Ibid, 253.
“A great part . . . and contradictory”: JCF, Report on an Exploration, in Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 256.
“The air at sunrise . . . reached us”: Ibid, 255.
a group of fifteen: Ibid., 259.
“a gigantic disorder . . . naked rock”: Ibid., 262.
headaches and to vomit: Ibid., 266.
He continued some two hundred feet: Preuss diary entry, August 17, 1842, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Frémont, 41.
“Well, Mr. Preuss . . . of the mountain”: Ibid., 43.
His men were exhausted: Ibid., 258.
two pairs of pants: Preuss, diary entry, August 31, 1842, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 59.
“That’s the way it is with these Americans . . . fail miserably”: Preuss, diary entry, August 2, 1842, ibid., 32.
prairie chicken, turtles, buffalo, and polecat: Preuss, diary entries, June 20, August 21, August 30, 1842, ibid., 9, 49–50, 59.
“foolish,” short-tempered, “childishly passionate,” and far too prone to headaches: Preuss, diary entries, ibid., 3, 46, 50.
who was lugging the fragile wood-and-glass barometer: Preuss diary entry for August 17, 1842, in Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 43.
“mulatto . . . had no privilege to choose”: Ibid., 44.
the summer air was above freezing: The temperature at the summit was 44 degrees Fahrenheit. JCF, Report on an Exploration, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 270.
put on thin-soled moccasins: Ibid., 269.
“I sprang upon the summit . . . the abyss below”: JCF, Report on an Exploration; Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 269–70.
and Preuss grumbled: Preuss, diary entry, August 17, 1842, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 45.
“wave in the breeze . . . waved before”: JCF, Report on an Exploration, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 270.
“This flag . . . I brought it to you”: Autobiographical fragment, Herr and Spence, Letters, 12.
she was devastated: Phillips, Jessie Benton Frémont, 68.
written in her hand: Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 168.
“The horseback life . . . most happy life work”: JBF, Memoir, 41.
“in dictation . . . to the subject”: JCF, Memoirs, 163.
“The long mountain . . . glowing sky”: JCF, Report on an Exploration, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 255.
“Now and then one would dart . . . pot over the fire”: Ibid., 226.
“an isolated granite rock . . . and forty in height”: Ibid., 247.
“a black preparation of India rubber . . . wind and rain”: Ibid., 273–74.
“I rose this morning . . . opposite side of the Missouri”: Ibid., 285.
free black son of Benton family servants: John described him as “a free young colored man of Washington city.” JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843–44, reprinted in Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 426.
John’s personal servant: Ibid., 428.
“of many nations . . . twenty-one years of age”: JCF, Report of an Exploring Expedition, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 575.
“a fine-looking old man and his son”: Ibid., 428. Frémont clearly did not get to know the men well; his report misidentified the Shawnee men as Delawares.
James Rogers, had named his son Thomas Jefferson Rogers: Ibid.
“Sir . . . your duties”: Abert to Frémont, May 22, 1843, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 345–46.
“peaceable expedition . . . report to this office”: Ibid.
“hostile expedition . . . Indian war”: Abert to Benton, July 10, 1843, ibid., 351.
suspected a political plot: JBF, writing in forward to JCF’s Memoirs of My Life, 15–16.
It was probably too late to stop John anyway: So it would seem from the late date of Abert’s letter. The scholar Don
ald Jackson argued that Jessie overdramatized her role in “The Myth of the Frémont Howitzer” (Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society 23, April 1967: 205–14).
“Mr. Fremont . . . JESSIE ANN BENTON FREMONT”: “News from Oregon,” Washington Globe, December 15, 1843.
“The parading of a lady’s . . . wherefore of its publication”: “For the Arkansas State Gazette, Number V,” Weekly Arkansas Gazette, January 17, 1844.
“To Adelaide Talbot . . . Jessie B. Fremont”: JBF to Talbot, September 16, 1843, Herr and Spence, Letters, 13.
“Mr. Fremont says that early in January 1844, he will be here”: JBF to Adelaide Talbot, December. 3, 1843. I, ibid., p. 15.
“your letter . . . I look for him”: JBF to Adelaide Talbot, February 1, 1844, ibid, 16–7.
“He cannot be here until the middle of April”: JBF to Adelaide Talbot, March 3, 1844, ibid., 18–19.
“He will not be here . . . Jessie Benton Fremont”: JBF to Adelaide Talbot, April 21, 1844, ibid., 21.
“The old whaling days of Nantucket . . . its useless hopes”: JBF, Souvenirs of My Time, 162.
CHAPTER FIVE: I DETERMINED TO MAKE THERE A HOME
“Leaving the valleys . . . known human being”: “The Far West,” Sunbury American and Shamokin Journal, March 25, 1843.
“romantic and thrilling . . . our enterprising officer”: “Literary Notices” and “The Far West,” New York Herald, September 10 and 18, 1843.
“a little book . . . many amusing and exciting adventures”: “A Real Buffalo Hunt,” Democratic Standard, October 10, 1843.
“It is very flattering . . . want to hear more”: JBF to Adelaide Talbot, April 21, 1844, Herr and Spence, Letters, 22.
“the country gone over . . . the conquest of it”: The Athenaum article was reprinted in the Washington Globe, June 6, 1844.
based on the journals and letters: Irving, Astoria.
Public meetings were organized in Missouri: Dorris, “The Oregon Trail.”
In the spring of 1842: Ibid.
“all the houses . . . in the vicinity”: “Oregon Emigration,” Niles’ National Register, May 3, 1845.
220 wagons: Ibid., 129.
“the hotels were crowded . . . arms and equipments”: Paul, Francis Parkman’s The Oregon Trail, 3.
Imperfect Union Page 39
