1840's Notable Events

Started by Comanche Kid, September 02, 2011, 05:10:35 AM

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Comanche Kid

May 1, 1841 - The first wagon train, with forty-seven emigrants, leave for California from Independence, Missouri.  The journey would take until November 4.

May 16, 1842 - The first organized wagon train on the Oregon Trail leaves with more than one hundred pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.  Although not welcomed due to company policy that discouraged emigration, they were offered food and farming equipment at Fort Vancouver by the Hudson Bay Company upon arrival.  Independence Rock on the Oregon Trail.  First mentioned by Parker in 1835, and carries an inscription on the rock with the names of early trappers and explorers.

May 22, 1843 - The first major wagon train headed for the northwest via the Oregon Trail begins with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.


June 4, 1843 - The Black Horse Troop of the 1st United States Dragoons from Fort Scott, Kansas join a military escort into Indian Territory along the Santa Fe Trail and apprehend Jacob Snively and his Texas freebooters.


July 4, 1845 - The Congress of Texas votes for annexation to the United States of America with the majority of voters in Texas approving a consitution on October 13.  These actions followed the signing of a bill by President Tyler on March 1, authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.

December 2, 1845 - U.S. President Polk invokes the concept of Manifest Destiny, announcing to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced and that the setlement of the West should be aggressively pursued.

July 28, 1846 - The Army of the West, under the command of Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny, travel down the Santa Fe Trail and arrive at Bent's Old Fort en route to the conquest of New Mexico.

July 24, 1847 - One hundred and forty-eight Mormons under Brigham Young settle at Salt Lake City, Utah after leaving Nauvoo, Illinois for the west on February 10, 1846 due to violent clashes over their beliefs, which included the practice of polygamy through the end of the 1800s.

January 24, 1848 - Gold was discovered in California by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in the town of Colona.  Seven months later, on August 19, the New York Herald breaks the news of the gold rush to East Coast readers, prompting eighty thousand prospectors to flood California and the Barbary Coast of San Francisco in 1849

December 4, 1849 - Crazy Horse, Chief of the Oglala Sioux, is born.

    Here are a few things to bring some perspective as to what was going on in the 1840's, and to which groups the Plainsmen may have sprung from...Somebody had to lead these folks across the prairies, and establish Forts and way points....Food For Thought...

Caleb Hobbs

Lot of good information here, Comanche Kid. I need to read more about Jacob Snively. I'm not familiar with that incident.

Colt Fanning

Some of this info on Jacob Snively may be suspect since it comes from internet stories but here goes.
Jacob Snively was secretary to Sam Houston.  Sometime in the 1860's he "pulled his freight" into Silver City NM with about
30 Lbs of Gold dust and nuggets.  He said that he was through with mining because" the indians nearly got me this time".
He said that he was going to Los Angeles to live on his Gold.  He didn't however since he was one of the founders of
Silver City and his name appears on documents organizing Miners associations in eastern Arizona in the 1860's.  He was
said to have been killed by indians while prospecting NW of Pheonix in 1871.
Regards
Colt

Caleb Hobbs

Thanks, Colt. I was looking at the Fort Scott NHS website, and also found this small piece on Snively, part of a larger story on the Santa Fe Trail.

Caleb

"Captain Philip St. George Cooke led five companies of dragoons along the Santa Fe Trail to protect the trade. In route, the dragoons encountered Jacob Snively, who held a commission from Texas to raid Mexican caravans on Mexican soil. Two days prior to their meeting with Cooke, Snively's men had attacked Mexican soldiers, killing several of them and taking their weapons.

Upon their initial encounter, Snively's men and the dragoons were across the Arkansas River from each other. The land north of the river clearly belonged to the United States, but south of the river, U.S. territory only extended west to the 100th meridian.

Snively claimed that he was forty miles west of the boundary, but Cooke contended that Snively was on American soil. Therefore, he ordered Fort Scott's dragoons under Captain Terrett, to cross the river and disarm the freebooters. The dragoons left the freebooters only ten guns for defense on their way back to Texas. A rumor persists that the Texans had hidden their own guns and surrendered the previously confiscated Mexican weapons to the dragoons.

The 1843 expedition earned Captain Cooke the undying hatred of the Texans but was successful because it discouraged any further attacks along the Santa Fe Trail that year."
.

captmack

Texas Santa Fe Expedition of 1841

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Santa_Fe_Expedition

This expedition was the basis for Larry McMurtry's book Dead Man's Walk

TNT also did a two-night miniseries as well.  It is a pretty good movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115238/

Capt. Mack
Capt Prather Scott "Mack" McLain
Senator
NCOWS Life Member #175

captmack

Battle of Plum Creek - 1840

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plum_Creek

The Battle of Plum Creek was a clash between militia and Rangers of the Republic of Texas and a huge Comanche war party under Chief Buffalo Hump, which took place near Lockhart, Texas on August 12, 1840, following the Great Raid of 1840 as the Comanche war party returned to West Texas.

Our SASS/GAF Club The Plum Creek Carriage & Shootists Society just north of Lockhart celebrates this every year with a two-day match by the same name.

http://www.pccss.org/shooting/Shooting.htm

Capt. Mack
Capt Prather Scott "Mack" McLain
Senator
NCOWS Life Member #175

Oregon Bill

Stirring times, as my GGF often said in his Civil War diaries.

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