Plainsmen period reading resources

[JimBob]

Parkman wasn't much for PC

LOL You can say that again.It's not a book for the PC squemish to read.He called it as he saw it.

[Tascosa Joe]

I do not believe we can judge our 18th and 19th century fore-fathers with our 20th and 21st century morals. 
T-Joe

[St. George]

Yet people will do just that very thing.

You should've seen the knotted drawers on the prairie when 'Deadwood' was first aired and the language that was used.

Folks who should've known better just couldn't believe that rough folks in a rough town would talk like that.

Kinda offended their sensibilities, since Hoppy and Roy didn't use that language...

Remember - these diaries were snapshots of the era - and were filled with the bias and intolerances of that time.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Advertising]

[Caleb Hobbs]

That doesn't just apply to the 18th and 19th centuries. Opinions from just a generation or two ago can be judged as racist, sexist, etc. by today's standards.

[Ranch 13]

 My life as an Indian and With the Indians in the Rockies,by Schultz.
Joe Meeks biography.
 Find what you can about Jeremiah Johsnton, his life and times described in the book fits this time period.
 Life in the Far Far West by Ruxton is an day to day account of his travels in the Taos country.
There's a number of books that give insights to this time period, but they are most all region specific and the day to day life in the various regions were as different then as they are now.

[Jake MacReedy]

I have a copy of this one at home.  It's a very good treatise on the Hawken, and those who purchased and used it.

THE HAWKEN RIFLE: Its Place in History  by Charles E. Hanson, Jr. (of the Fur Trade Museum in Chadron, Nebraska)

[boilerplatejackson]

Another excellant book to read, but out of print is "Five Years a Dragoon, 1849 thru 1854" written by Percival Lowe. Percival wrote first hand of his experiences on the plains first as a Dragoon, then as a Teamster, and later Wagonmaster working out of Ft.
Leavenworth. Very educational and easy to read. His book takes you up to the beginning of the Civil War on the western frontier.
A fast way to latch onto this book is thru your librarys Inner Library Loan system.

[Caleb Hobbs]

Jackson -- You're a hard-core Kansan. I'm betting you're familiar with James Mead's "Hunting and Trading on the Great Plains." That book had a lot to do with sparking my interest in pre-Civil War Kansas buffalo hunting.

[boilerplatejackson]

I cant say as that I have, but I will this winter. Another favorite that was mentioned earlier is Dr. Joshua Greggs, "Commerce of
the Prairies. Another easy to read, and information filled book.

If you ever have a week to study more photos go to the web site kshs.org and enter the Alexander Gardner photos of 1867 into the search engine.
This site is truly a portal inwhich to look at the plains of Kansas from Wyandotte ( head office of the Kansas Pacific RR) to Fort
Hays. The details in these large format photos are staggering. I am told the entire collection of Gardner is at the Getty museum in LA, Calif.

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

Another excellant book to read, but out of print is "Five Years a Dragoon, 1849 thru 1854" written by Percival Lowe. Percival wrote first hand of his experiences on the plains first as a Dragoon, then as a Teamster, and later Wagonmaster working out of Ft.
Leavenworth. Very educational and easy to read. His book takes you up to the beginning of the Civil War on the western frontier.
A fast way to latch onto this book is thru your librarys Inner Library Loan system.

Five years a Dragoon, is free to read as a PDF.
http://ia600306.us.archive.org/24/items/fiveyearsadragoo001213mbp/fiveyearsadragoo001213mbp.pdf

Another interesting read is the "The Sublette-Beale Hawken" 
http://asoac.org/bulletins/87_burke_hawken.pdf

[boilerplatejackson]

Thanks for the information about the book on PDF. Now his knowledge of the plains is only a click away. Much appreciated!

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

Thanks for the information about the book on PDF. Now his knowledge of the plains is only a click away. Much appreciated!

Thanks too you for the heads up on this book.  Have just got started reading it, in fact he just enlisted in the Dragoons, but you were right that is an easy read. He was very educated and it comes across in the writing.

[The Elderly Kid]

Life Among the Apaches by John C. Cremony. Written in 1868, it recounts Cremony's wanderings among the Apaches and other tribes from 1847 through the '50s. One of the rare firsthand accounts of the Apaches during those years, Cremony shows some sympathy and understanding of those difficult people, though he thought it unlikely Apaches and white settlers could ever live amicably side-by-side.

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

Life Among the Apaches by John C. Cremony. Written in 1868, it recounts Cremony's wanderings among the Apaches and other tribes from 1847 through the '50s. One of the rare firsthand accounts of the Apaches during those years, Cremony shows some sympathy and understanding of those difficult people, though he thought it unlikely Apaches and white settlers could ever live amicably side-by-side.

Life among the Apaches by John C. Cremony  PDF down load

http://ia600302.us.archive.org/7/items/lifeamongapaches00cremrich/lifeamongapaches00cremrich.pdf

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

A Voice from Harper's Ferry:
A Narrative of Events at Harper's Ferry
By Osborne Perry Anderson

born 1830 Died1871 was an African-American abolitionist and the only surviving African-American member of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, and later a soldier in the Union army of the American Civil War.

PDF:  http://ia700204.us.archive.org/17/items/voicefromharpers01ande/voicefromharpers01ande.pdf

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

"Life among the Apaches"  is available on line as a pdf.

http://ia700302.us.archive.org/7/items/lifeamongapaches00cremrich/lifeamongapaches00cremrich.pdf

Published 1868 - Written by John Cremony  1815 - 1879

[Caleb Hobbs]

Some good downloads here, TwoWalks. Thanks for the links.

[River City John]

Coming from a longtime love of art history, I would recommend the following for some visual references:

Charles Deas
www.amazon.com/Charles-America-Russell-Photography-American/dp/0806140305/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2
 
Carl Wimar
www.amazon.com/Carl-Wimar-Chronicler-Missouri-Frontier/dp/0810939584/ref=pd_sim_b13

Karl Bodmer
www.amazon.com/Karl-Bodmers-America-Bodmer/dp/0803211856/ref=pd_sim_b1

George Catlin
www.amazon.com/George-Catlin-His-Indian-Gallery/dp/0393052176/ref=pd_sim_b1

George Caleb Bingham
www.georgecalebbingham.org/bio.htm
(This Bingham site has a fairly good catalog listing of his artwork located in various museums.)

Keeping artistic license in mind, these artists all traveled and recorded the frontier. Some more faithfully as documenters, but all captured first person the emotion and sense of time of what they witnessed.  
RCJ

[Jubal Wilson]

TAPS,
I would like to suggest two books about Joseph Rurtherford (often miss spelled Reddeford) Walker who was young at the beginning of the Mountain Man/trapper period and died shortly after our period of interest. Walker did a lot of different things including leading wagon trains to Oregon and California and leading prospecting parties all over the West.

The first book is "Westering Man", by Bil Gilbert, 1983, ATHENEUM, New York
This book is about his whole life and is well researched.

The second book is "Joseph Reddeford Walker and the Arizona Adventure", by Daniel Ellis Conner, 1956, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
In 1862 Conner joined a Walker prospecting party traveling through New Mexico and southern Arizona to the rumored gold fields of the central Arizona mountains. Conner was the historian or journal keeper for the party. This party found gold and established the towns of Prescott and Walker in what is now Yavapai county. Although Conner sometimes a little fuzzy on locations and dates, most of his journal is valid. In my other life I grew up in Prescott, Arizona and have personally visited most of the places around there that Conner mentions.

I hope these references will be of use.

Jubal

[Caleb Hobbs]

I've got quite a few books on various mountain men and explorers, but nothing on Walker. I'll have to check those out. Thanks.