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James
Clyman was
born February 1, 1792 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
His parents were farmers, holding a life-tenancy on a farm
belonging to George Washington. As
a child he received some education, learning to read and to write.
He also shared in the work on the farm, clearing land, planting
crops, tending livestock and hunting.
In 1811, when he w James Clyman had
made his way to St. Louis in the spring of 1823 where he met General
William Ashley. Ashley
must have been impressed with Clyman’s experience and background,
because he hired Clyman as Clerk for his second expedition up the Missouri
at the generous rate of $1 a day. At the
age of 31, Clyman would be one of the oldest men ascending the Missouri
this year with Ashley’s party. One
of Clyman’s first responsibilities upon being hired was to recruit
additional men to join the brigade. There
were few men available in St. Louis that spring and Clyman writes that
many of the men recruited were found in “grog shops and other sinks of
degradation.” On March 10,
1823, the Ashley’s second expedition left St. Louis and began to slowly
and laboriously ascend the Missouri River.
By the end of May the brigade had arrived at the Arikara villages.
The Arikara Indian were in an evil mood, a result of two of their
warriors having been killed recently by traders from the Missouri Fur
Company. Ashley thought he
would be able to make the Arikara understand that his brigade was not
responsible for the deaths, but was not very successful in this.
There followed several days of very difficult trading.
Ashley desperately needed horses for logistical reasons for his
first expedition which was still in the mountains.
On the night of the third day, being May 31, several men of the
brigade, including Edward Rose, without authorization slipped into the
Indian village. There followed
an altercation involving a woman, resulting in the death of one of the
trappers. The next morning the
Indians opened fire from the fortifications of their village, killing
fifteen of Ashley’s men, and wounding an additional nine.
James Clyman was
on the beach that morning, along with Jedediah Smith.
Although the fortified village was too far for certain aim, Clyman
states that there were seven or eight hundred guns in the village, which
made the beach a very unpleasant place to be.
Although several trips were made from the keelboat to the beach
with a skiff, the men in the keelboats were generally unwilling to risk
exposing themselves to pick up the men on the beach.
The evacuation of the beach was haphazard and deadly.
In order to save himself, Clyman ran upstream a short distance and
plunged into the river, with the intention of swimming out to the
keelboats. He misjudged the
strength of the current and was swept past the keelboats.
One of the skiffs had gotten loose in the battle, and Reed Gibson,
who also had swum out from the shore had gotten into it.
Gibson rescued Clyman from the river, however, before the men could
make their escape downstream, Gibson received a mortal wound.
Clyman managed to maneuver the skiff to the shore, where they were
immediately beset by attackers. Gibson
told Clyman to save himself, that he, Gibson was already as good as dead.
Clyman set off across the prairie with three Indians in pursuit.
This deadly footrace was to last for an hour (as reported by
Clyman) before Clyman was able to elude his pursuers in some broken
ground. Clyman continued
across the prairie to the south, feeling vulnerable because he had lost
his rifle, pistols, and knife, and didn’t even have his fire steel.
He estimated the nearest assistance might be 300 miles distant.
He came up to the Missouri River, and being thirsty went down the
bank to drink. Within minutes
of arriving at the river, Ashley’s keelboats came floating past and
picked up Clyman. Gibson had
also been rescued earlier; however he would die within an hour of the wounds he
had received. The keelboats
dropped several miles further downstream to wait for any additional
survivors to come up. After
three or four days another survivor, Jack Larisson came up, “naked as
the day he was born and skin peeling off of him”.
He had been wounded on the beach and left for dead.
Knowing his only hope of escape was in swimming the river, he
divested himself of his clothing and took to the water.
Although the Indians fired their guns at his head as he was
swimming away, he was able to make good his escape.
After this the
entire brigade moved about 200 miles down the Missouri River to recover
and await for reinforcements. By
early August, 1823, Andrew Henry with a party had come down from the
Yellowstone River area; a party of about 40 men from the Missouri Fur
Company had come up river, and Colonel Leavenworth with 230 men had
arrived. In addition there
were about 750 mounted Sioux warriors along to score coup on their old
enemies, the Arikara. After
two days of talking, feasting, speeches and Indian dances, the combined
force moved up the Missouri River to the vicinity of the Arikara villages.
The Sioux, being mounted went ahead of the main force of white
trappers and soldiers. Clyman
writes that when they arrived on the field, “… the plain was covered
with Indians which looked more like a swarm of bees than a battle field
they going in all possible directions…”
After three days of ineffective skirmishes, one of the Arikara
chiefs came out to offer peace. General
terms were drawn up by Colonel Leavenworth, and were to be confirmed the
following day. (In general,
however, the men of the two fur companies did not want a peace agreement,
they wanted the Arikara annihilated).
When morning came it was found that the Arikara had totally
abandoned their village and were no-where to be seen.
General Ashley
would now be able to move his fur brigade past the Arikara village,
however the problem was not solved, but was now rather much worse.
Now there were several thousand Arikara wandering the Missouri
river valley, dispersed, displaced, angry, and ready to take vengeance on
any white trader or trapper that they met. Ashley
chose to move his men and keelboats back down the river to Fort Kiowa, a
trading establishment owned by the Missouri Fur Company.
It was now late August and Ashley and Henry were facing financial
ruin if they couldn’t get their men, equipment and supplies to the
mountains. Enough horses were
quickly obtained so that a small party under Andrew Henry and supplies
could be sent to support those men left on the Yellowstone River.
Hugh Glass was a member of this party.
The larger party
had difficulty obtaining enough horses, and it wasn’t until the end of
September that they had purchased (mostly from Sioux Indians) or borrowed
(from the Missouri Fur Company) sufficient horses to set off for the
mountains. Included with this
party are Jedediah Smith, Thomas Fitzpatrick, William Sublette, Moses
“Black” Harris, Edward Rose, and Thomas Eddie as well as James Clyman.
It was intended that this party would winter with the Crow Indians,
and then hunt and trap streams in the vicinity of the Wind River Mountains
and the Seeds-ka-dee River (Green River).
While traveling through the region south of the Black Hills, the
party was attacked by a grizzly bear, specifically Jedediah Smith.
Before Smith could be rescued, the bear had broken several ribs,
and nearly torn Smith’s entire scalp and one ear away.
None of the men having any surgical knowledge, there was great
reluctance to aid Smith with his wounds.
Finally Clyman, with Smith’s encouragement took the lead in
reattaching Smith’s scalp and ear with a needle and thread.
The party remained in camp for ten days or two weeks while
Smith’s injuries healed before setting off to the west again.
The party reached
the Crow Indian tribe in late November of 1823 where they spent the next
several months. In early
February of 1824 Smith’s party left the Crow village.
The Crow Indians had become too demanding, at the instigation of
Edward Rose, who had been adopted into the tribe.
There followed a period of weeks of hardship, cold, hunger and
extremely high winds. The
winds were so continuous and so fierce that fires generally could not be
lit, and even when lit, were blown away by the wind.
During this period, James Clyman saved William Sublette from
freezing to death when the two of them were hunting for meat.
A store of powder and lead was cached at the location of the camp,
the trappers were to re-unite at this location in June. On February 20,
1824, Smith split the party to trap the streams more efficiently, taking
himself and seven men, while the remainder of the party included Clyman
and Fitzpatrick. Trapping was
carried on successfully, with the exception of a temporary, loss
of the party’s horses to Shoshone Indians. The
same band of Indians was met five days later, and the misappropriated
horses recovered. On
June 15, Fitzpatrick, Clyman and party were back at the location of the
cached supplies, but Smith’s group had not yet arrived.
Fitzpatrick and Clyman followed the Sweetwater River downstream for
about 15 miles, apparently on foot, concluding that it wasn’t
“navigable” and couldn’t
be used to transport their furs downstream.
Clyman proceeded downstream alone for three days.
The fur brigade was to follow three or four days behind Clyman.
When Clyman arrived at the confluence of the Sweetwater and North
Platte Rivers, he found a well situated camping site.
As he was starting to set up his camp, approximately 22 Blackfoot
Indians arrived on the opposite bank of the river and set up their own
camp. After several harrowing
near encounters, the Indians moved off, unaware of Clyman's presence.
Clyman remained at this location for twelve days waiting for the
fur brigade to show up but it never arrived.
Having plenty of powder, but only 11 balls, Clyman decided the
surest course of survival would be to walk downstream to Fort Atkinson at
Council Bluffs, a hike of about 600 miles.
He arrived at Fort Atkinson about 80 days later famished and in a
near delirious state. During
his hike he had been relieved of his gun, knife and remaining gear in an
encounter with Pawnee Indians. At
one point he was able to kill two badgers, which he ate raw, by clubbing
them with a horse bone. After
arriving at the fort, General Leavenworth temporarily assigned Clyman to
one of the forts military companies. As military personel,
Leavenworth could the provided Clyman with soldiers rations
while he recovered. Ten days
after Clyman arrived at Fort Atkinson, Fitzpatrick, and two others arrived
at the fort in even worse condition then Clyman was when he arrived.
Fitzpatrick and his companions had suffered a mishap in the river,
and had lost most of their supplies, two of their guns, all of the fur
packs and all of their balls. They
then made an almost identical 600 mile trek.
After Fitzpatrick
caught up with Clyman at Fort Atkinson, they returned to the North Platte
to recover the fur packs that were lost in the mishap on the river.
These were then packed on mules back to Fort Atkinson were they
were sold to Lucien Fontenelle, probably because Fontenelle had
re-equipped Fitzpatrick. Late
in 1824 Ashley arrived at Fort Atkinson with a license to “trade with
the Snake Indians” a fiction that everyone was aware of.
In reality, Ashley’s fur brigade was going primarily to trap,
furs acquired by trading were relatively few in comparison.
Ashley’s party,
including Clyman, Fitzpatrick, Zacharias Ham and James Beckwourth left
Fort Atkinson for the mountains early in November 1824.
It included a total of 25 men, 50 horses and one wagon, which
probably didn’t make it too far. The
trek quickly became a nightmare, with snow knee deep and fierce winds.
Food and fodder were in short supply.
In addition, the village of Loup Pawnee, where Ashley had hoped to
obtain food and additional horses couldn’t be found.
Rations were reduced to a half-pint of flour per man per day, along
with the meat from the horses that had died of starvation or exposure
thrown in. At the Forks of
the Platte River, they caught up with the Loup Pawnee, and were able to
obtain food, horses and buffalo robes.
Up to this point they had been following the route taken by Clyman,
and later by Fitzpatrick the previous summer.
Ashley now decided that they would follow the South Platte and
thence up the Cache la Poudre, a route that none in the party had ever
traveled. This route is at
high elevations and rough even under good conditions.
On April 22,
1825, Ashley split his party into four groups.
Clyman was chosen as a leader of a group of six men, including Jim
Beckwourth, with the purpose of trapping the headwaters of the Seeds-ka-dee
(Green River) to the north and west. In
addition to trapping the headwaters of the Seeds-ka-dee, Clyman was try
and find parties headed by Jedediah Smith or John H Weber, who had
wintered over in the mountains. In
choosing Clyman as a leader Ashley called him one of his “most
intelligent and efficient” men. The
parties were to gather on or around July 1, 1825 at a location Ashley
would indicate with markings at some prominent location along the
Seeds-ka-dee. This was the
first rendezvous.
Clyman’s group
was at first successful in trapping beaver.
His group was then attacked by Indians who had at first been
friendly and were camping with the trappers.
One of the trappers was killed in the initial attack.
After the Indians had withdrawn, Clyman realizing that his group
was too small to present an effective defense, backtracked to where
Fitzpatrick and his party were trapping to join forces.
Clyman wintered
over in the mountains during the winter of 1825-1826.
In the spring of 1826 he was one of three men who circumnavigated
the Great Salt Lake in skin canoes, searching for an outlet and the
mythical Rio Buenaventura, a river rumored to extend to the Pacific Ocean.
They were unsuccessful in finding an outlet, and suffered greatly
from thirst on the salt water lake.. Clyman’s
whereabouts for the remainder of 1826 are not known, however, he often
traveled with William Sublette. If
so, he may have traveled into the Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, the Three
Forks areas. Clyman
probably remained in the mountains through the spring and summer of 1827,
trapping along or in the vicinity of the Seeds-ka-dee.
In 1835, Clyman
told a friend of one of his experiences in the mountains with Blackfoot
Indians. Clyman and one other
trapper were trapping in Blackfoot country.
To avoid detection, they would visit their traps only during the
late evening, or at dawn, and would hide out during the day.
Early one evening, while riding through some thick timber, they
found themselves in the midst of a Blackfoot encampment.
Clyman, cool and self-possessed, rode straight up to the chief’s
lodge, and made signs indicating friendship, and claimed that the two had
ridden into the camp deliberately to pass the night.
The chief wasn’t exactly friendly, but his women did serve food
to the two trappers. As they
ate and smoked their pipes, Clyman, who understood some of the Blackfoot
language, heard the chief tell some of the warriors the two trappers
should be killed. Clyman
warned his companion. As soon
as it was almost dark, Clyman and his companion leaped to their feet and
ran for the river, followed closely by the Blackfoot Indians, who fired
arrows and balls at the retreating trappers.
Clyman got to the river, swam across and hid under a bank on the
opposite side where he waited until the Indians gave up searching and
returned to their camp. His
fellow trapper apparently did not survive the experience because he was
never seen or heard from again. Clyman returned
to St. Louis in the fall of 1827. He
sold 278 pounds of beaver skins to Wilson P Hunt on October 17, 1827 at
$4.50 a pound, for a total of $1,251.
This was a very large sum of money at a time when $200 a year was
considered a very well paying position.
Clyman moved into
the Illinois-Wisconsin area where he remained for the next 17 years.
He first returned to Danville, Illinois, where he bought land which
he used to set up his two brothers with farms.
Clyman then became partners with Daniel Beckwith, in setting up one
of the first general stores in Danville.
He later was partners in a sawmill near Milwaukee, and speculated
in land further to the north. Clyman
served in various positions in the military during the Black Hawk War.
After the war was over, he was appointed Colonel of the Wisconsin
Militia by Governor Dodge. In the spring of
1844, Clyman packed up “to see the country and try to find a better
climate”. This was four
years before Wisconsin became a state, and it was becoming too “settled
up” for the mountain man. Clyman made his way
down into Arkansas and thence to Independence, Missouri where he found
emigrants assembling for the passage to Oregon.
For whatever reason, Clyman joined with one of the emigrant parties
bound for Oregon. After
arriving in Oregon in October 1844, he spent the next year and a half
playing tourist, traveling, meeting people and site-seeing in
western Oregon, and California as far south as the San Francisco area.
Clyman was in California during the same period that John Fremont
and his expedition of military “explorers” were there.
Clyman left California in April of 1846, to return to Missouri and
thence Wisconsin. The return
journey followed a path similar to the proposed Hastings Cutoff route.
On the return trip, he met many parties of emigrants bound for
Oregon and California. In late
June, along the North Platte, he spent an evening talking with an emigrant
group which included members of the Donner Party.
In conversations with the emigrants he strongly advised against
following the Hastings Cutoff. However,
the members of the Donner Party chose to go down in history by following
the wild speculations of someone who had never traveled in the west, as
opposed to the advice of someone who had traveled the route in the
previous two months. After his return
to Wisconsin, Clyman spent the next year and a half talking with friends
and settling his affairs. By
the spring of 1848, Clyman was back in Independence, Missouri, where he
became a guide for a small party of emigrants, mostly the extended family
of the McCombs, bound for California.
After arriving in California, James Clyman, at the age of 57, would
marry Hanna McCombs, a woman who was more than 30 years younger than he.
Clyman settled down to become a farmer in the Napa region of
California. He would have five
children, four of who would died of scarlet fever.
In his later
years he remained active running a fruit and dairy ranch, and occasionally
hunting deer. He died on
December 27th, 1881. He
was 89 years old. Journal
of a Mountain Man, by James Clyman, edited by Linda M Hasselstrom.
Published by the Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, 1984.
This book is a compilation of the journals, notebooks, diaries and
memoirs of James Clyman. The
book provides us a picture of life in the first half of the 1800’s as
well as a look at a man who was willing to follow opportunities where-ever
they would lead, who never allowed himself to be trapped by his own past,
doing whatever was necessary to survive.
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