Mountin Man Giveaway

My next Guess is Warren Angus Ferris.

Warren Angus Ferris (December 25, 1810 in Glens Falls, New York - February 8, 1873) was a trapper and fur trader in the Rocky Mountains during the early 1830s. In 1834, Ferris acted as a clerk for the American Fur Company in a journey to the mountains of western Wyoming. Out of curiosity, Ferris found Indian guides and made a side journey into what is today Yellowstone National Park. In a journal that he kept during that time, later published as Life in the Rocky Mountains, Ferris gave one of the first descriptions of the gysers of Yellowstone.

From the surface of a rocky plain or table, burst forth columns of water of various dimensions, projected high in the air, accompanied by loud explosions, and sulphurous vapors, which were highly disagreeable to the smell. ...The largest of these wonderful fountains, projects a column of boiling water several feet in diameter, to the height of more than one hundred and fifty feet. ...These explosions and discharges occur at intervals of about two hours.... (Breining, p. 70)
In the 1830s Ferris traveled to Texas where he became the official surveyor for Nacogdoches County. In 1839 Ferris surveyed at the Three Forks of the Trinity River deciding the lines and direction of streets for today's Dallas County. Ferris entered and surveyed this land prior to John Neely Bryan, the commonly accepted founder of Dallas
 
Second guess James Clyman . Copied and pasted this.

hile collecting his pay in Saint Louis in 1823, he met William H. Ashley, and joined Ashley's 1823 expedition. James Clyman the mountain man was born.

Clyman was with Ashley's men from 1823 to 1827. He fought the Arikara Indians in the Arikara War in 1823. He also traveled with Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick through the South Pass. He also was a member of the party of four that paddled around the Great Salt Lake and put away the myth of the Buenaventura River.

After his explorations, he bought a farm near Danville, Illinois, and also set up a store there. Then, the Blackhawk War broke out and Clyman joined the fight.

After the war, he travelled back West and crossed the Great Salt Lake Desert and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. On his way back, he met the Donner-Reed Party and accompanying parties and advised them to go no further. They did not heed his advice and ended up cannibalizing many members of their parties after reaching the Sierra Nevada.

In 1846, Clyman settled in the Napa Valley. He died there in 1881 and was buried in the Tulocay Cemetery.
 
Old Dan Tucker was a fine old man
He washed his face in the frying pan
He combed his hair with a wagon wheel
And died of the toothache in his heel

Get out the way for old Dan Tucker
He's too late to git his supper
Supper's over and dishes washed
Nothing left but a piece of squash

Old Dan Tucker went to town
Riding a mule and leading a hound
Hound barked and mule jumped
Threw old Dan right over a stump

Get out the way for old Dan Tucker
He's too late to git his supper
Supper's over and dishes washed
Nothing left but a piece of squash


I come to town the other night
I hear the noise and saw the fight
The watchman was arunning around
Crying "Old Dan Tucker's come to Town"

Old Dan he went down to the mill
To get some meal to put in the swill
The miller swore by the point of his knife
He never see'd such a man in his life

Tucker is a nice old man
He used to ride our darby ram
He sent him whizzin' down the hill
If he hadn't got up, he'd lay there still

Get out the way for old Dan Tucker
He's too late to git his supper
Supper's over and dishes washed
Nothing left but a piece of squash


Old Dan begun in early life
To play the bango and the fife
He play the children all to sleep
And then into his bunk he'd creep

Get out the way for old Dan Tucker
He's too late to git his supper
Supper's over and dishes washed
Nothing left but a piece of squash

:D
 
Clyman was thought to be one of the best shots in the west and earned a reputation as being very steady under pressure. I think he worked with the well known Jedediah Smith. I saw a reference once to him being a fast runner, but I don't know how that was demonstrated. Maybe at Rendezvous?

He ain't my mountain man though. ;)

Nice ditty Marcelo.
 
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Joe Meek,

A skilled practitioner of the frontier art of the tall tale, the mountain man Joe Meek dies on his farm in Oregon. His life was nearly as adventurous as his stories claimed.

Born in Virginia in 1810, Meek was a friendly and relentlessly good-humored young man, but he had too much rambunctious energy to do well in school. At 16 years old, the illiterate Meek moved west to join two of his brothers in Missouri. In subsequent years, he taught himself to read and write, but his spelling and grammar remained highly original throughout his life.

In early 1829, Meek joined William Sublette's ambitious expedition to begin fur trading in the Far West. For the next decade, Meek traveled throughout the West, reveling in the adventure and independence of the mountain man life. At 6 feet, 2 inches tall, the heavily bearded Meek became a favorite character at the annual mountain-men rendezvous, where he regaled his companions with humorous and often exaggerated stories of his wilderness adventures. A renowned grizzly hunter, Meek claimed he liked to "count coup" on the dangerous animals before killing them, a variation on a Native American practice in which they shamed a live human enemy by tapping them with a long stick. Meek also told a story in which he claimed to have wrestled an attacking grizzly with his bare hands before finally sinking a tomahawk into its brain.

Over the years, Meek established good relations with many Native Americans, and he married three Indian women, including the daughter of a Nez Perce chief. Nonetheless, he also frequently fought with tribes who were hostile to the incursion of the mountain men into their territories. In the spring of 1837, Meek was nearly killed by a Blackfeet warrior who was taking aim with his bow while Meek tried to reload his Hawken rifle. Luckily for Meek, the warrior dropped his first arrow while drawing the bow, and the mountain man had time to reload and shoot.

In 1840, Meek recognized that the golden era of the free trappers was ending. Joining with another mountain man, Meek and his third wife guided one of the first wagon trains to cross the Rockies on the Oregon Trail. Meek settled in the lush Willamette Valley of western Oregon, became a farmer, and actively encouraged other Americans to join him. In 1847, Meek led a delegation to Washington, D.C., asking for military protection from Indian attacks and territorial status for Oregon. Though he arrived "ragged, dirty, and lousy," Meek became something of a celebrity in the capitol. Easterners relished the boisterous good humor Meek showed in proclaiming himself the "envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the Republic of Oregon to the Court of the United States." Congress responded by making Oregon an official American territory and Meek became a U.S. marshal.

Meek returned to Oregon and became heavily involved in politics, eventually helping to found the Oregon Republican Party. He later retired to his farm, where he died on this day at the age of 65.
 
A third try, this time Jean Baptist Charbonneau who was a child of the mountains yet better educated and traveled than most any other from the era.

This Charbonneau was the son of Toussant Charbonneau and the Shoshone Sacagawea. Jean Baptist was born in North Dakota at a winter camp of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804-05. He spent his first four years traveling on the expedition with his parents.

Clark took a liking to the boy who he called “Pomp” and paid for his education in St. Louis at what is now St. Louis University High School. Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wurttmberg, Germany who was studying American animals and plants brought Charbonneau to Germany for a period. Despite learning three languages and socializing with royalty Charbonneau returned to the mountains to work the fur trade.

He is known to have traveled with Bridger, Beckworth, Meek, Fremont and others both trapping and guiding. He tried prospecting in California and lived in Sacremento for 16 years. In his sixty’s, he died on the trail in Oregon (1866) while traveling to prospect for gold in Montanna.

He is also the only child to be depicted on American currency, carried by his mother on the Sacagawea dollar.

SacDollar.jpg
 
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Sorry I blew the one entry per day rule yesterday. Today my guess is Francois-Antoine Laroque. This French Canadian trapper joined the North West company at age 17 and trapped all over the Northern USA. He wrote two jounals, the Missouri Journal and the Yellowstone Journal that have significant historical value for the trapping era of that time. Another Captain (seems to be a popular rank amoung fur traders), Laroque fought in the war of 1812 where he was taken prisoner and spent 6 months in an American jail. He later got into railroads, retail and other big business.

Another claim to fame is that he was the first vic-presidnt of the Mechanics Institution in 1839. Unlike most Mountain men, Laroque lived to ripe old age of 85.
 
I love this thread. I never learned so much about our past in school. Good stuff.

My next guess is Peter Skene Ogden.

From http://www.bookrags.com/biography/peter-skene-ogden/

The Canadian fur trader and explorer Peter Skene Ogden (1794-1854) was a leader in the Pacific Northwest fur trade during the mid-19th century.

Peter Ogden, the youngest son of American loyalists Isaac and Sarah Ogden, was born in Quebec. Although his father held a judgeship, young Peter became a clerk for John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. By the time he was 15 or 16, he had joined the Montreal-based North West Company as a clerk. Between 1810 and 1817 he served in this capacity at several trading posts near Hudson Bay. In 1818 he led several successful trapping expeditions, and his competence brought a promotion. After his company merged into the Hudson's Bay Company, he led six major expeditions between 1824 and 1830.

On the first of these, Ogden met a party of Americans who demanded that the Canadians get out of American territory; Ogden refused. Unfortunately, the Hudson's Bay Company paid Ogden's trappers so little that 23 of his 70 men joined the American party. For the next 5 years the two groups waged a fierce competition to gather furs, and by the 1830s they had denuded the region. In 1835 Ogden was promoted to chief factor, the highest field rank in the company service, and went to Fort St. James on Lake Stuart, where he worked until 1844.

On these expeditions Ogden and his men traveled throughout the mountainous West and up and down the Pacific coast. They brought the first report of the Humboldt River, which was named for Ogden until 1843. Ogden is also credited with naming Mt. Shasta in northern California. Because of his years of trade with and travel among the Indians, Ogden was able to rescue the 47 American prisoners taken by the Cayuse Indians during the Whitman Mission massacre in 1847.

Ogden was married twice, each time to a Native American woman, and he had at least one daughter. Described as a distinguished, short, dark-complexioned man, Ogden was considered a witty and lively conversationalist. He wrote a short book entitled Traits of American Indian Life and Character , which he published anonymously in London in 1853. He died on Sept. 27, 1854, in Oregon City, Oregon Territory.
 
Damn!!!
We got a veritable Mountain Man Encyclopedia going on here!!:thumbup::eek:

Trent's Pick Numero Quatro

Ceran St. Vrain (May 5, 1802 – October 28, 1870)
This guy was big in the Taos area fur trapping business
Ceran and William Bent (Bent's Fort) were business partners
During the Taos Revolt, St. Vrain organized a force to support the U.S. re-capture of Taos during the Mexican-American War. St. Vrain's 65 volunteers (including a few New Mexicans such as Manuel Chaves, who was to save St. Vrain's life) joined more than 300 U.S. troops in Santa Fe and set off for Taos. Along the way, they forced the retreat of some 1,500 Mexican and Indian rebels, who took refuge in a thick-walled adobe church in Taos Pueblo. During the Siege of Pueblo de Taos, St. Vrain's "Emergency Brigade" positioned themselves between the church and the mountains, cutting off the forces attempting to escape the federal troops' frontal assault. The mounted volunteers reportedly raided the rebels and killed 51 Mexicans, Taos Indians, and Apaches in the fierce, close-quarter fighting that followed.
Click to expand...

http://www.protrails.com/trail.php?trailID=74
 
Starting to get tuff now. How about Thomas McKay?

McKay, Thomas, fur trader (c. 1796-1850). His place of birth is not recorded, but he was a quarter Cree; is father, Alexander McKay, resigned from the North West Company to join Astor, bringing Thomas along as a clerk. Thomas reached the Oregon coast aboard the Tonquin in 1811, his father perishing in the Indian attack on the ship later off Vancouver Island. Tom survived an Indian attack in January 1814, near The Dalles. When the Astoria company was sold to the North West Company, McKay transferred his allegiance. He became involved in the Red River dispute between North West and Hudson's Bay Company men, taking part in the Massacre of Seven Oaks in 1816, returning to the Columbia River probably with Peter Skene Ogden. McKay trapped western Oregon for several seasons, his services being retained when the HBC absorbed the North West Company in 1821. Initially favored by George Simpson, HBC governor, McKay fell into disfavor for unexplained reasons, and never rose much in the company, but he became a principal lieutenant of Ogden's. He tried farming in 1833 near Champoeg, Oregon, became an independent trader in 1834. He worked occasionally for HBC thereafter, had a role in the aftermath of the Whitman massacre, went to California briefly during the Gold Rush, and returned to die in Oregon.
 
dingobubba said:
Starting to get tuff now.
Click to expand...


I swear I didn't think it would be this hard. I think there is a provincial element here, i.e. I think the answer is obvious because I'm being provincial. Although I bet you guys will say, "of course!" when you see the answer.

Extra clues: Yesterday I went fishing on a river here in Wyoming. The mountain man I have in mind was killed on this same river. I was fishing a bit further upstream from where he was killed. His death is a bit mysterious, but has generally been attributed to local Indians, Arapahoe most likely. This is odd because he was very friendly with the Arapahoe and was purported to have a good relationship with them. He was a free trapper and had to keep a good reputation in order to stay in business. He was known for being honest and tolerant of all. He may have been caught up a range war between different tribes of Indians; in addition to Arapahoe, this area was contested at times by Crow, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, and Shoshone. His death supposedly led to reprisal killings and a small war between trappers and Indians--he likely would have disapproved.

It's fascinating to be out on a river that he explored and trapped and died on. Gives me a tangible sense of history to walk where these intrepid men roamed.
 
A New Day a New guess, "Jacques Laramie" The Laramie River was named after Jacques Laramie, a French trapper killed by Arapaho Indians in 1821 near the headwaters of the river. ...
 
Well done Snake! Did I give away too much with the clue?

Well Jacques Laramie (or was it LaRamee?) is the correct answer. There are many places in Wyoming named after this mysterious guy: city of Laramie, Ft. Laramie, Laramie River, Laramie Range, etc....

He was a French-Canadian trapper thought to have traveled to the Wyoming area around 1815. He was a 'free trapper' meaning he wasn't affiliated with one of the major fur companies, e.g. Hudson's Bay Company. As such he was free to trade with whomever he liked. There is speculation he may have been one of the trappers who started the annual rendezvous tradition.

Rendezvous was an anual event where trappers, sutlers, and Indians gathered to trade, barter, and deal. Often a mountain man would trade his year's supply of furs for guns, knives, traps, and whiskey. Sound like anyone you know? There was general partying, contests, and, of course, altercations. Sounds like wild times indeed.

In 1821 Jacques didn't show up for Rendezvous and some of the other mountain men went to find him. He was thought to be trapping the eponymous Laramie river and that's where he was found. Dead. As per my previous post, his death was avenged but sparked a series of killings and raised tensions for trappers and Indians alike in the area.

Congratulations. Send me a p.m. with your address and I'll get the prize off to you. Now I need to figure out who wins the best story part of the contest. Any suggestions?
 
That was It Rotte "The Clue" and a quik search and It was all there, It was spelled both way's Laraime, But I think the Real Spelling Is La Raime, Thank's for the Great Give-A-Way ! I'll send a PM In a short, Thank's !
 
Congrats.
Great contest Rotte!!! This was some fantastic reading.
 
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