The American fur trade of the Far West;: A history of pioneer trading posts & early fur companies of the Missouri Valley & Rocky Mountains & of the ... of early American business & industry)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 Excerpt: ...In the days when he was a roustabout on Missouri river steamboats, or a wild savage among his adopted tribe, he was plain Jim Beckwith, and is so carried on the rolls of the American Fur Company, who employed him at various times. According to his own account (a most questionable authority, but we have no other upon most of the matters relating to him), he was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, April 26, 1798. At the age of seven or eight he was taken to St. Louis with his parents, who soon moved to the point of land between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers near JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 689 old Portage des Sioux. At ten he was put to school in St. Louis. At fourteen he was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith trade. After five years' service he fell out with his employer and hired out on a steamboat going up the Mississippi river. He remained in the vicinity of Galena for eighteen months. Returning to St. Louis he made a steamboat trip to New Orleans and caught the yellow fever on his way back. Surviving this attack he enlisted in Ashley's Rocky mountain party of 1824. He did not get to the mountains that year, but was sent back by Ashley for horses, and in the following spring went through to Green river. After Ashley had made his fortune and retired from the mountains, Beckwourth entered upon a series of experiences that filled every month of his life with more adventures than the average mountaineer could boast of in twice as many years. The most important event, however, was his induction into the Crow nation as a bona fide member of that rascally commonwealth. Whether Beckwourth or the Crows got the worst of the bargain it might be difficult to decide, but the way it came about has all the naive ingenuity which characterizes the most elaborate of his yarn...