In 1841, the Bartleson–Bidwell Party, led by Captain John Bartleson and
John Bidwell, became the first American emigrants to attempt a wagon crossing from
Missouri to
California.
Beginnings
In the winter of 1840, the Western Emigration Society was founded in Missouri, with 500 pledging to trek west into Mexican California. Members included Baldridge, Barnett, Bartleson, Bidwell and Nye. Organized on 18 May 1841, Talbot H. Green was elected president, John Bidwell secretary, and John Bartleson captain. The group joined Father Pierre Jean De Smet's Jesuit missionary group, led by Thomas F. Fitzpatrick, westward across
South Pass along the
Oregon Trail. That trail took them past
Courthouse and Jail Rocks
Courthouse and Jail Rocks are two rock formations located near Bridgeport in the Nebraska Panhandle.
The Oregon-California Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Pony Express Trail and the Sidney-Deadwood Trail all ran near the rocks. The pair of rock f ...
,
Chimney Rock,
Scotts Bluff,
Fort Laramie, and
Independence Rock. The Bartleson-Bidwell party separated from Fitzpatrick, and the missionary group, at
Soda Springs on 11 Aug.
[
]
The Trail
The western Emigration Society had resolved to follow the route suggested by Dr. John Marsh. As early as 1837, Marsh realized that owning a great rancho was problematic if he could not hold it. The corrupt and unpredictable rulings by courts in California (then part of Mexico) made this questionable. With evidence that the Russians, French and English were preparing to seize the province, he determined to make it a part of the United States. He felt that the best way to go about this was to encourage emigration by Americans to California, and in this way the history of Texas would be repeated.
Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, soil and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route." His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first significant immigration to California. He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.
Marsh's recommended route, the California Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail f ...
, was based on the prior experiences of Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western United States, and ...
, Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden (alternately Skeene, Skein, or Skeen; baptised 12 February 1790 – 27 September 1854) was a British-Canadian fur trader and an early explorer of what is now British Columbia and the Western United States. During his many expedi ...
, and Joseph R. Walker
Joseph R. Walker (December 13, 1798 – October 27, 1876) was a mountain man and experienced Reconnaissance, scout. He established the segment of the California Trail, the primary route for the emigrants to the gold fields during the Californ ...
. That route led southwest from Soda Springs along the Bear River and the Cache Valley
Cache Valley is a valley of northern Utah and southeast Idaho, United States, that includes the Logan metropolitan area. The valley was used by 19th century mountain men and was the site of the 1863 Bear River Massacre. The name, Cache Valley i ...
. On August 24, 1841 the party headed west and north around the Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particula ...
, camping in the vicinity of the Hansel Mountains
The Hansel Mountains are a long mountain range located in north Utah on the northern border of the Great Salt Lake.
Located in northeast Box Elder County, the southwest of the range abuts the Locomotive Springs State Wildlife Management Area; th ...
until September 9 while they scouted the route to Mary's River (known today as the Humboldt River). By September 12 wagons and possessions were beginning to be abandoned. By October 9 they crossed Mary's River and headed west to Lake Humboldt, Humboldt Sink
The Humboldt Sink is an intermittent dry lake bed, approximately 11 mi (18 km) long, and 4 mi (6 km) across, in northwestern Nevada in the United States. The body of water in the sink is known as Humboldt Lake. The sink and its ...
, and Carson Sink. On October 30 they passed through the Stanislaus River
The Stanislaus River is a tributary of the San Joaquin River in north-central California in the United States. The main stem of the river is long, and measured to its furthest headwaters it is about long. Originating as three forks in the high ...
canyon into the San Joaquin Valley. On November 4, 1841 the party made it to Marsh's ranch.[Stone, Irving. ''Men to Match my Mountains,'' pp 32-37, Berkley Books, New York, New York, 1956, 1982. .][
According to Doyce Nunis, "...the Bidwell-Bartleson party had successfully made the first planned overland emigrant journey to California, bearing with courage and great fortitude the vicissitudes of their ordeal. These hardy pioneers were the harbingers of many thousands to come."][
]
Roster
Missionary PartyGregory Mengarini
Gregorio or Gregory Mengarini (21 July 181123 September 1886) was an Italian Society of Jesus, Jesuit Catholic priest, priest and Christian missionary, missionary and linguist. He worked as a pioneer missionary in the northwest of the United Sta ...
* Jesuit Brothers: William Claessens, Charles Huet, Joseph Specht
* Teamsters: L. Boileau, E. Chaussie, L.L. Coving
* Trappers: Jim Baker, John Grey, William Mast, Piga
* Others: Amos E. Frye, Rogers, W.G. Romaine, Reverend Joseph Williams
The Bidwell-Bartleson who arrived in California[
* John Bartleson
* Elias Barnett
* Josiah Belden
* William Belty
* John Bidwell
* Henry L. Brolaski
* David W. Chandler
* ]Joseph Chiles Joseph Ballinger Chiles (July 16, 1810 – June 25, 1885), later known by his Spanish name José B. Chiles, was a Californian ranchero, military officer, and entrepreneur. Born in Kentucky, Chiles served as a colonel in the U.S. Army during the Semi ...
* Grove C. Cook
* Nicholas Dawson
* V.W. Dawson
* Paul Geddes
* George Henshaw
* Charles Hopper
* Henry Huber
* James John
* Thomas Jones
* Andrew Kelsey
* Benjamin Kelsey
* Nancy Kelsey
Nancy Kelsey (August 1, 1823, in Barren County, Kentucky – August 10, 1896, in Cuyama, California) was a member of the Bartleson–Bidwell Party. She was the first white woman to travel overland from Missouri, seeing Utah and Nevada before cr ...
and daughter
* John McDowell
* Nelson McMahan
* Samuel Green McMahan
* Michael C. Nye
* Andrew Gwinn Patton
* Robert Rickman
* John Roland
* John L. Schwartz
* James P. Springer
* Robert H. Thomas
* Ambrose Walton
* Major Walton
* Charles M. Weber
The Bidwell-Bartleson who arrived in Oregon[
* Carroll
* Augustus Fifer
* Richard Fillan with wife and child
* William Fowler
* Charles W. Flügge
* David F. Hill
* J.W. Jones
* Samuel Kelsey with wife and five children
* Zedidiah Kelsey and wife
* Edward Rogers
* James Ross
* Richard Williams and wife
]
See also
* Hastings Cutoff
References
* Charles Hopper, "Narrative of Charles Hopper, A California Pioneer of 1841", ''Utah Historical Quarterly'' 3 (1930)
* Charles Kelly, Salt Desert Trails (1930)
* Roderick J. Korns, "West from Fort Bridger", ''Utah Historical Quarterly'' 19 (1951)
* David E. Miller, First Wagon Train to Cross Utah, 1841", ''Utah Historical Quarterly'' 30 (1962)
* Benjamin Kelsey, "Man of Adventurous Disposition"
* Dale L. Morgan
Lowell Dale Morgan (December 18, 1914 – March 30, 1971), generally cited as Dale Morgan or Dale L. Morgan, was an American historian, accomplished researcher, biographer, editor, and critic. He specialized in material on Utah history, Mormon ...
, The Great Salt Lake (1947) fro
Pioneers and Cowboys
at historytogo.utah.gov
External links
"The First Emigrant Train to California" by John Bidwell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartleson-Bidwell Party
American frontier
Mexican California
Pre-statehood history of Utah
Pre-statehood history of Nevada
Humboldt River
California Trail