James Clyman
James Clyman (February 1, 1792 – December 27, 1881), also known as Jim Clyman, was a
American Far West
.
Early life
James Clyman was born on a farm that belonged to
ranger to fight the Shawnee Indians in the War of 1812. After the war, he took up farming in Indiana, where he also traded with local Indians. In 1821, he became a surveyor working near the Little Vermilion River in Illinois. He was hired by a son of Alexander Hamilton, who was running government surveys, to make surveys along the Sangamon River
.
Mountain Man
While collecting his pay in
William H. Ashley, and joined his 1823 expedition. Clyman remained with them until 1827. He fought in the Arikara War in 1823. As a member of Ashley's expedition, Clyman wrote one of the two accounts detailing Hugh Glass's mauling by grizzly bear.[1] Clyman also traveled with Jedediah Smith, whose scalp and ear he sewed back on following a savage grizzly bear mauling, and Thomas Fitzpatrick in the discovery of the South Pass.[2] He also was a member of the party of four that paddled around the Great Salt Lake and put to rest the myth of the Buenaventura River
.
After his explorations, he bought a farm, near
Milwaukee County and made the decision to venture further north in the fall with his friend Ellsworth Burnett.[4] They left on November 4, 1835 and on the second day out, they were attacked by two Native American men near present-day Theresa, Dodge County. Burnett was killed, while Clyman was wounded but managed to escape and hide in the woods.[3] This story became well known in the region and when in the years afterwards immigrants started to settle Dodge County they named one of the towns "Clyman
" to remember what once happened in the area.
In later years, he traveled back West, crossing the
Sierra Nevada. On his way back, he encountered the Donner-Reed Party and accompanying parties. He advised them to avoid taking a shortcut and remain on the regular route. They did not heed his warning and ended up resorting to cannibalism
after becoming stranded and trapped by an early blizzard in the Sierra Nevada.
In 1848, Clyman settled in the Napa County, California where he built a home on Redwood Road. He died there in 1881 and was buried in the Tulocay Cemetery in Napa, California.[5] The Clyman home went on the market in early 2022 following a major restoration.[6] The home sold in March 2022 for the $1.85 Million asking price.
References
- ^ "Jim Bridger".
- ^ Bernard DeVoto, The Year of Decision: 1846. Boston: Little, Brown, 1943, p. 53
- ^ a b CAMP C.L., red., James Clyman, Frontiersman, 1792-1881: The Adventures of A Trapper and Covered-Wagon Emigrant As Told in His Own Reminiscences and Diaries, Portland, 1960, p. 46-49.
- ^ http://genealogytrails.com/wis/milwaukee/history_chapter2.html Pioneer History of Milwaukee by James S Buck SWAIN & TATE, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 1890 - KILLING OF ELLSWORTH BURNETT
- ^ "Photos: Historic monuments and mausoleums at Napa's Tulocay Cemetery". Napa Valley Register. Napa, CA: Lee Enterprises, Inc. December 10, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
- ^ Huffman, Jennifer (February 17, 2022). "North Napa's oldest home for sale for $1.85 million: Local developer restores 1850s home on Redwood Road". Napa Valley Register. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
Sources
- DeVoto, Bernard The Year of Decision: 1846 Boston: Little, Brown, 1943.
- Morgan, Dale L.Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the American West. University of Nebraska Press, 1964.
- Stone, Irving. Men to Match my Mountains. New York, 1956.
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