Listing of 1840-1865 Personalities *** Photos Added ***

[Two Flints]

Hello APS,

Would someone please provide a list of the more famous "personalities" associated with the American Plainsmen Period, 1840-1865 period.  And would "Liver Eating" Johnson be considered one of these men?

Thanks,
Two Flints

[Caleb Hobbs]

Howdy, Two Flints:

Just off the top of my head, I'm not so sure about Liver Eating Johnson being around during the Plainsmen period, popular fiction not withstanding. Others may know more on the subject. Folks like Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill (or Duck Bill, at the time), Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, William Bent, and Joseph Meek should fall into that category. So would Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, during the War with Mexico in 1846. I suspect this list will grow quite a bit in the coming days.

[Two Flints]

Hi Caleb,

I'd like to add a few Frontiersmen to the list to start it off with a photo of each man.  If one or more of the men listed does not belong, please remove it, or let me know and I will remove it.  The name of the Frontiersman is listed if known.

Liver Eating Johnson


Unknown Mule Skinner


Billy Dixon


Frank North, Indian Scout


Unknown Frontiersman


James P. Beckwourth


James Stobie


Hank Greenwood


Two Flints

[Advertising]

[Caleb Hobbs]

Two Flints:

Probably the library or an Internet search would be the best place to look up a lot of these men. The American Plainsmen Society covers the years 1840 to 1865 -- basically that time frame between the mountain man era and groups that focus on the 1865 and later period. We took the name Plainsmen early on, but include just about any persona from the American frontier period -- Dragoons, 49ers, Texas Rangers, Indian scouts, Crackers, farmers and settlers, townsmen and women, border ruffians, bandits, etc.

There's no doubt the actual Plainsmen period ran later than 1865, and there's more than a few of us who wish we'd run the date up to at least 1870. But the dates we chose fills a niche for historical re-enactment, and that was our original goal.

As far as the photos:

A lot of people say Liver Eating Johnson went West in 1847, but other research claims a post-Civil War date. Based on the information I've seen, I tend to believe the later. I could be wrong. (Wouldn't be the first time.)

I've seen this muleskinner photo before. I don't recall where, but I believe he was identified as an 1850s bullwhacker. His style of whip would support that. Bullwhackers general carried a whip with a longer staff to reach over the tops of the cattle they were walking alongside.

Again, off the top of my head, I don't think Billy Dixon came West until after the Civil War; my memory is that his first Western experience was as a wagon driver hauling trade goods to the Medicine Lodge Treaty Council of '66 or '67. That should be easy to find with a search, and my apologies if I'm wrong.

You'd probably be more aware of when Frank North came West -- unless he was born there. I'm thinking he was, but I don't know what he did prior to becoming commander of the Pawnee Scouts after the Civil War.

I don't know anything about the "Unknown Frontiersman", but my first impression was that he seems a mite "untarnished" to have spend much time outdoors.

Beckwourth could easily be considered a Plainsmen.

I'm not familiar with James Stobie, but he certainly looks the part. If anyone has more information on him, I'd like to see it.

I've not familiar with Hank Greenwood, either, but I'm curious about what appears to be two belts. His other gear would date him after our time frame. Of course that doesn't mean he couldn't have been on the frontier quite a bit earlier.

I like your idea of posting photos or prints from the 1840 to 1865 time frame. A picture adds a level of understanding that a written description can't -- and vice-versa. Keep 'em coming.

[Hangtown Frye]

Pull a "Sacajawea"  dollar out of your pocket and look closely.  The baby she's carrying on her back, and who is poking his head into the frame is Jean Babtiste Charbonneau, whom William Clark adopted after Sacajawea's death.  Clark raised Jean Babtiste as his own, sent him to French schools in St. Louis and let him visit his family from time to time too. 

As a grown man he entered the Fur Trade and was present at the battle of Pierre's Hole in 1832.  He did some guiding for a German prince who was impressed enough to bring him back to Germany for a university education, and later he became Secretary to the US Ambassador to France. He went back and forth between being a Dignified American and being a Wild Mountain Man. Being in California at the time of the Gold Rush in 1848 he "struck it rich" and did well for himself, but in 1863 he was convinced to guide a group of gold miners from California to the Montana Gold Fields around Virginia City.  He guided them successfully across the Nevada deserts, but caught pneumonia at some point and died in southern Oregon, where he is buried.

Fascinating fellow, well deserving of a whole lot more press than he's gotten.  On the other hand, he IS on a US Dollar coin!

Cheers!

Gordon

[jtex]

Two Flints,

I have to throw in a vote for Jack Coffee Hays. I can include a link to his biography but he lived a life on the Texas and Southwest Frontier that would make an excellant movie or book, although his life would not need any hollywood additions. Jack was a fearless Texas Ranger in the early days and one of or his best compliments came from a Comanche Cheif that stated "him no good". Believe that comment was derived from his ability to catch up with war party raiders and route them. He was the Texas Rangers. He was the 1st to utilize the Paterson to its full potential and developed the tactics that made the rangers so formidable. His tenure on the plains lasted some 13 years in the service of protecting the early pioneer's and took part in the Plum Creek battle that defeated Buffalo Humps raid on Linville TX. He was respected by all that knew him and was reported as a quite, polite, humble gentlemen, until the need arose to lead and charge.... Men such as Sam Houston and Sam Walker revered him as the best Ranger leader in the service.

If my narative is viewed as not historically factual, I would like to discuss that with any viewers and admit that this is my opinion and I could be biased.

[ChuckBurrows]

FYI - that should be CHARLES STOBIE not James and he did not come west until post ACW

Some famous Plainsmen:
1) Kit Carson - http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/carson.htm
2) Tom Tobin - http://www.high-lonesomebooks.com/cgi-bin/hlb/3700.html
3) Sagundai aka James Secondine - http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/delaware/sagundai-lg.jpg
4) Black Beaver - http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/delaware/blackbeaver.jpg
5) John C Fremont - http://www.longcamp.com/
6) One of my favorites, Irishman James Kirker, ex-mountaineer and scalp hunter, was described by one of Doniphan's Missouri Regiment in 1846:
"Fringed buckskin shirt and breeches, heavy broad Mexican hat, huge spurs, all embellished and ornamented with Mexican finery......In addition to a Hawkens rifle elegantly mounted and ornamented with silver inlaid on the stock, he was armed with a choice assortment of pistols and Mexican daggers........."
7) The Bent Brothers, Charles and William and their children
8 ) Captain Randolph B Marcy author of the Praire Traveler
9) Tom Fitzpatrick - http://www.3rd1000.com/history3/biography/tfitzpatrick.htm
10) Mariana Medina aka Modena - http://www.franksrealm.com/Indians/mountainman/pages/mountainman-marianomedina.htm
11) My ancestor Bill Burrows - here's him as painted by A J Miller
http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=48858
12) Texas Ranger John "RIP" Ford - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/John-Salmon-Ford.jpg
13) Jim Baker - http://www.myspace.com/mountainmanrendezvous/photos/2569835#%7B%22ImageId%22%3A2569835%7D

[Tascosa Joe]

Just add a few couple.  Charlotte Green the cook at Bent's Fort.  Susan McGoffen and her husband whose name will not come from the depth of my brain.  McGoffen  is misspelled.

[Dorman Nelson]

Howdy,
On John Liver Eating Johnston: You have the first known photo of him taken by Fouch in the winter of 1876-7.
He was a scout chasing Crazy Horse along with Yellowstone Kelly and others.

Johnston only got to the Alder Gulch region of Montana Terr. in 1862. He was too young to be involved in the fur trade as
such. I would class him as a frontiersman. He was raised a farmer and teamster, then was a sailor--too young to be in the Amex War.

(My relative Robert McLellan was a true fur man also working with John Jacob Astor in the early 1800s. He would be classed as a fur trader.)

Johnston, became a Union soldier in 1864 and went on to running whiskey up into Canada in the early 1870s. While he hunted buffalo and wolves for fur, the beaver time had long passed.

Johnston was shipped down, ILL, to Sawtelle, California where he died of Peritonitis. He was reburied in Cody, Wyoming in 1974 because a 7th grade class saw the movie Jeremiah Johnson and petitioned the Gov to have him reburied.
See www.johnlivereatingjohnston.com      I am trying to finish my bio on him....

[Justician]

Take a look at some of the old Calamity Jane photos, the "unknown frontiersman" could be her. I'm not sure, but the jawline is very similar and it is the type of photo that she would pose for.

Justician