Jim Baker (frontiersman)
Jim Baker | |
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George Custer | |
Spouses | Married to least three Native American women:
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Children | 14 |
Jim Baker (1818–1898), known as "Honest Jim Baker",[1] was a frontiersman, trapper, hunter, army scout, interpreter, and rancher. He was first a trapper and hunter. The decline of the fur trade in the early 1840s drove many trappers to quit, but Baker remained in the business until 1855. During that time he was a friend of Jim Bridger, Kit Carson and John C. Frémont. On August 21, 1841, he was among a group of twenty three trappers who were attacked by Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux on what became known as Battle Mountain. After Henry Fraeb was killed, Baker organized the trappers against the Native Americans in a multiple-day fight.
While he was a trapper, he developed expertise as a guide, leader, marksman, and interpreter with Native Americans. He operated a ferry and trading post along the
He had at least three Native American wives and fourteen children. He homesteaded on what is now Clear Creek near Denver on July 3, 1859. The area became known as Baker's Crossing, and he established several businesses there. He raised cattle, operated a stone coal (anthracite) mine, a toll bridge on the Denver Boulder Wagon Road, and a store operated by two of his wives. In 1873, Baker built a cabin with a guard tower near the Little Snake River in Wyoming, where he raised livestock until his death in 1898. His cabin is currently on display at the Little Snake River Museum in Savery, Wyoming. Baker's grave is marked with a stone at Baker Cemetery near Savery.
Early life
James Baker was born on December 19, 1818, in
Baker had sisters Eliza, Elizabeth, and Adelia and a brother John.[3] He learned to hunt for game with a gun and fish as a child.[2] He and his siblings had little education.[3] When he was seventeen, his father sent him to his grandfather at St. Louis for schooling, but he was sent home when it was clear he had no interest in education. Interested in living a life on the frontier, he went to the American Fur Company in St. Louis to sign up to be a trapper.[2]
Fur trapper and hunter
Baker was hired by
Baker traveled on the steamer St. Peter upriver to
Baker traveled with the
Baker continued to hunt and trap in the Henry's Fork area independent of a fur company.[6] He was often with Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, his brother John Baker, and others. They got along well with the Shoshone, but the Arapaho and Snake people sometimes stole their collection of furs that they collected over a summer.[11] He became known for his skills as a frontiersman:
Next to Jim Bridger, he was the most intrepid, skillful, and accomplished plainsman and mountaineer in all that region. He was a generous, noble-hearted specimen of the trapper type, who would peril his life for a friend at any time, or divide with him his last morsel of food.[2]
— James Lee Humfreville, Twenty Years Among Our Savage Indians
His younger brother John, called "Beaver John" on the frontier, was also a trapper, hunter, and scout. He hunted and trapped with his brother Jim, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger and Jack Robinson. His brother married a Shoshone woman and established a cattle ranch near Henry's Fork in Wyoming.[11]
Jim Baker was known for his skills as a marksman, archer, horseman, tracker, hunter, and lariat thrower. When hunting with a group of people, Baker generally took the lead and was the fastest rider of the men. He was also a competent Native American sign language communicator[12] and spoke a number of Native American languages.[10] He was known for his ability to guide, even where there were no evident trails. He had a good knowledge of the geography of the west, guiding others around rivers, lakes, canyons, and other geographical features.[13] Based upon his reputation, he became a good friend of John C. Frémont.[14]
Baker camped with the Shoshone in the
It became increasingly difficult to make a living trapping and hunting furs. Beaver had been fairly well trapped out by the 1840s. In addition, there was shift in fashion away from fur and to silk hats, so there was not much of a demand for beaver hats.[16]
Baker operated at least one trading post and ferry stop on the Oregon - California - Mormon Trails along the Green River south to Salt Lake City.[17][18] As Mormons moved into the area, they established towns. Shoshone, Utes, Mormons, mountain men, and new immigrants vied for land and resources.[17]
Baker hunted with Baker and Carson into the fall of 1852. They traveled through what are now the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and back to New Mexico. It was their last trip together[1] and he ended his career as a trapper and hunter in 1855.[5]
Scout
Baker was a guide and interpreter
In 1855, Baker was the chief scout at
While practicing with his
Colorado and Wyoming
On July 3, 1859, Baker took up a homestead west of
In 1864, Baker was appointed a captain in the
He led a railroad survey party to Salt Lake in 1872. In 1873, Baker left Colorado and bought a ranch in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming. He built a hand-hewn log cabin, that looked like and served as a fort for settlers following the Meeker Massacre (September 29, 1879).[1][5] Baker raised cattle, which he branded with "JB".[1]
He guided an Indian agent and separately guided Colonel Wesley Merritt following the massacre.
Personal life and death
Jim Baker was married three[1] or more times, perhaps with as many as six wives,[19] including women from the Shoshone, Snake, Bannock, and Flathood tribes.[15] He fathered 14 children.[1]
Baker was first married to Marina, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Shoshone chief Washakie, in October 1847.[1][15][24] They had three children: Jennieve Jane, William and Joseph. Marina died while Baker was away on an extended hunting trip in 1852.[1][15] She and some of Baker's children died of smallpox.[15]
Baker fell in love with Flying Fawn, a Sioux woman and daughter of Long Lance. They were about to be married when Flash of Fire, her cousin, prepared to shoot an arrow at Baker out of jealousy. Long Lance killed Flash of Fire, saving Baker's life. It is not known if Baker and Flying Fawn were married.[1] It was also said that Baker saved a Sioux woman from starvation in the 1850s.[15]
His wife Meeteetse (Little Traveler), who Baker called Mary, was a Shoshone woman.[10] They had ten children: Thomas, Buck, Jim, Mary, Isabel, Madeline, Nancy Kate, Liza, and Elsie. With his wife Eliza Yanetse, they had a daughter Jennie.[1] Eliza had twins in 1856, but only one of them survived, and was named James C. Baker.[15] On July 3, 1859, Baker and his family settled at a place known as Baker's Crossing, west of Denver along Clear Creek).[10]
Baker moved near Savery, present-day Carbon County, Wyoming,[1][11] in 1873, where he had a two-story cabin known as Jim Baker Cabin near the Little Snake River.[5][d] The family lived on the first level the second floor was used for storage,[5] or where Baker would sleep after pulling up the ladder from the ground floor.[26] Until 1881, there was a watchtower cupola on top of the second floor, where there was a "commanding view" of the Little Snake River Valley.[5] Shoshone, Ute, and Snake people lived in tipis in the area.[5] By that time, none of his wives were with him and there were only six children who settled with him:
- William homesteaded where the town of Dixon, Wyoming now stands and died in 1893.
- Joseph lived with Baker in 1880 and moved to the Shoshone Reservation at Lander, Wyoming
- Mary married John Runnels, a miner and died at Hahn's Peak, CO in 1880.
- Isabelle lived with Baker in 1880 and married N.B. Kinnear.
- Madeline lived with Baker in 1880 and married Frank Adams.
- Jennie lived with Baker in 1880 and married August Rischke.
Baker continued to live out his life at his cattle ranch and cabin.[5] On May 15, 1898, Baker died at the Jim Baker Cabin.[1][11] His body was buried in a family cemetery at the base of the mountain named after him, Baker's Peak.[1][24]
Legacy
In 1917, the Baker Cabin was removed from Savery and taken to Frontier Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In July 1976, the home of Jim Baker was returned to Savery, Wyoming and is now located at the Little Snake River Museum. The cabin was reconstructed under the direction of Jim Baker's great-grandson, Paul McAllister of Dixon, Wyoming.[5][27] Westminster, Colorado, commissioned a statue of Baker.[28] His portrait was created in a stained glass window for the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver.[10]
Jim Mountain in northwest Wyoming is named after him.[29]
Notes
- ^ It was also said that he first worked for the American Fur Company in May 22, 1839.[5]
- ^ Snodgrass states that Fraeb and his party were found along the Yampa River at the Colorado and Wyoming border.[3]
- ^ The Jim Baker Cabin is located at Savery. He is said to have also lived near Fort Bridger, a military post and trading station[1][11] and near Baggs, Wyoming.[15] The eastern most place, Savery, is 13 miles east of Baggs, which is 203 miles east and south of Fort Bridger.[25]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Van Pelt, Lori (January 2, 2015). "Jim Baker, Frontier Scout". Wyoming History. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Humfreville 1897, p. 580.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Snodgrass 2015, p. 10.
- ^ History of Sangamon County, Illinois. Inter-state publishing Company. 1881. p. 874.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Jim Baker Cabin". Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Humfreville 1897, p. 581.
- ^ a b c Crutchfield, Moutlon & Bene 2015, p. PT238.
- ^ Crutchfield, Moutlon & Bene 2015, p. rPT238.
- ^ a b c Humfreville 1897, p. 582.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Crutchfield, Moutlon & Bene 2015, p. PT239.
- ^ a b c d e f "'Beaver John' Baker Dead: Trapper and Companion of Kit Carson—His Indian Wife". Los Angeles Herald. May 10, 1901. Retrieved December 26, 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ a b Humfreville 1897, pp. 581–582.
- ^ Humfreville 1897, p. 583.
- ^ Snodgrass 2015, pp. 10–11.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Snodgrass 2015, p. 11.
- ^ Athearn, Frederic J.; United States. Bureau of Land Management. Colorado State Office (1976). An isolated empire : a history of northwest Colorado. Denver, Colorado: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Colorado State Office.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8061-3175-7.
- ^ Athearn, Frederic J.; United States. Bureau of Land Management. Colorado State Office (1976). An isolated empire : a history of northwest Colorado. Denver, Colo. : U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Colorado State Office. p. 19.
- ^ a b Newark 1985, p. 29.
- ^ Humfreville 1897, pp. 583–584.
- ^ Humfreville 1897, pp. 584–585.
- ^ Elliott, Donald R. (1999). Doris L. (Salmen) Elliott (ed.). "Colorado Place Names" (PDF). Denver Public Library. Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies, Inc. p. 30.
- ^ Snodgrass 2015, pp. 11–12.
- ^ a b "Lives of Baker men had uncanny parallels". The Orlando Sentinel. July 31, 1994. p. 12. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
- ^ "Savery to Baggs to Fort Bridger". Google maps. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
- ^ Humfreville 1897, p. 595.
- ^ Junge, Mark (May 26, 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Jim Baker Cabin". National Park Service.
- ^ Snodgrass 2015, p. 12.
- ^ Barry Swackhamer, The American Mountain Man: A Tribute, hmdb.org, Retrieved 2023-09-23.
Bibliography
- Crutchfield, James A.; Moutlon, Candy; Bene, Terry Del (March 26, 2015). "Baker, James (1818–1898)". The Settlement of America: An Encyclopedia of Westward Expansion from Jamestown to the Closing of the Frontier. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-45460-1.
- Humfreville, James Lee (1897). Twenty Years Among Our Savage Indians: A Record of Personal Experiences, Observations, and Adventures Among the Indians of the Wild West. Hartford Publishing Company. p. 580.
- Newark, Peter (1985). Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Old West. Gallery Books. ISBN 9780831765996.
- Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2015). Settlers of the American West: The Lives of 231 Notable Pioneers. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 11. ISBN 9780786497355.
External links
- Kankakee Valley Historical Society Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office Archived 2005-04-13 at the Wayback Machine