Jonathan Carver
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Jonathan Carver (April 13, 1710 – January 31, 1780) was a captain in a
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
colonial unit, explorer, and writer. After his exploration of the northern
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
valley and western
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, he published an account of his expedition, ''Travels through America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768'' (1778), that was widely read and raised interest in the territory. Carver was born in Weymouth,
Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...
, on April 13, 1710, the son of David and Hannah (Dyer) Carver. His father was modestly wealthy and was elected to various public positions in Weymouth and Canterbury. The family moved to
Canterbury, Connecticut Canterbury is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 5,045 at the 2020 census. History The area was settled by English colonists in the 1680s as ...
, when Carver was still a young child. The details of his education are unknown but he was literate, taught himself surveying and cartography, and may have studied medicine at one time. He also apprenticed as a cobbler.Bickham 2004Williams 1984 On October 20, 1746, he married Abigail Robins and they eventually had five children together. Around 1748, Carver moved his young family to Montague, Massachusetts, at the time a small frontier settlement, where he served as a
selectman The select board or board of selectmen is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States. The board typically consists of three or five members, with or without staggered terms. Three is the most common numb ...
.Bickham 2004Williams 1984 In 1755 Carver joined the Massachusetts colonial militia at the start of the
French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...
. In 1757, Carver, a friend of Robert Rogers, enlisted with
Burke's Rangers The Burke's Rangers was a Company (military unit), company of Provincial troops in the French and Indian Wars, provincial volunteers organized and led by Major John Burke in Massachusetts just before the French and Indian War. Burke was widely no ...
. Burke's Rangers would in 1758 become a part of
Rogers' Rangers Rogers' Rangers was a company of soldiers from the Province of New Hampshire raised by Major Robert Rogers and attached to the British Army during the French and Indian War. The unit was quickly adopted into the New England Colonies army as an i ...
. During the war he studied surveying and mapping techniques. Carver was successful in the military and eventually became captain of a Massachusetts regiment in 1761. Two years later he quit the army with a determination to explore the new territories acquired by the British as a result of the war, as France had ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain. Initially Carver was unable to find a sponsor for his proposed explorations but in 1766, Robert Rogers contracted Carver to lead an expedition to find the
Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...
, what was believed to be a western water route to the Pacific Ocean. There was a great incentive to discover this route. The king and Parliament had promised a vast prize in gold for any such discovery. The eastern route to the Pacific was around the
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...
at the foot of Africa. That route was both lengthy and contested by competing European powers. In 1766 and 1767 Carver explored parts of present-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, mainly along the upper Mississippi River. When he returned east, however, his efforts were not recognized. He sailed to England in 1769, seeking recompense, and remained there for the rest of his life. In 1778 he published a book on his travels, which became very successful. He died in 1780. Following his death, some of his heirs claimed that he had obtained a land grant from two
Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...
chiefs for a large area of eastern Wisconsin during his expedition. The grant was legally invalid and may have been a fraud mounted posthumously.


Travels and exploration

Carver left
Fort Michilimackinac Fort Michilimackinac (/fóːt ˌmɪʃələˈmækənɔː/ FAWT MISH-ə-lə-MAK-ə-naw) was an 18th-century French, and later British, fort and trading post at the Straits of Mackinac; it was built on the northern tip of the lower peninsula ...
at present-day
Mackinaw City, Michigan Mackinaw City ( ) is a village at the northernmost point of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, United States. Divided between Cheboygan and Emmet counties, Mackinaw City is located at the southern end of the Mackinac Bridge, which carries Inter ...
, in the spring of 1766. Taking large fur-trading canoes, he traveled the well-used trade routes of the French. His route took him along the northern coast of
Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...
, cut across to the
Door Peninsula The Door Peninsula is a peninsula in eastern Wisconsin, separating the southern part of the Green Bay from Lake Michigan. The peninsula includes northern Kewaunee County, northeastern Brown County, and the mainland portion of Door Count ...
(what is now Door County) in Wisconsin and proceeded along the western edge of the bay until reaching what is now
Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the head of Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the F ...
. Carver recorded visiting a small
Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...
settlement at the foot of
Green Bay (Lake Michigan) Green Bay is an arm of Lake Michigan, located along the south coast of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the east coast of Wisconsin. It is separated from the rest of the lake by the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin, the Garden Peninsula in Michigan, an ...
, as well as a French monastery nearby in Des Peres, Wisconsin. Carver resupplied here and continued his journey. He traveled up the Fox River to the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) village at the north end of
Lake Winnebago Lake Winnebago (, , ) is a shallow freshwater lake in the north central United States, located in east central Wisconsin. At , it is the largest lake entirely within the state, covering an area of about by with of shoreline, an average depth ...
, where the present city of
Neenah, Wisconsin Neenah ( ) is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States. It is situated on the banks of Lake Winnebago, Little Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox River (Green Bay tributary), Fox River approximately northeast of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, O ...
, has developed. Continuing up the Fox River he eventually arrived at the "Grand Portage", a well-used portage between the Fox and the Wisconsin rivers. This was a major fur trading site. From here (now
Portage, Wisconsin Portage is a city in Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. The population was 10,581 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Columbia County. It is part of the Madison metropolitan area. Portage was named for ...
), furs could be shipped from the Great Lakes to the Wisconsin River, and then south along the Mississippi to the major port of
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
on the Gulf Coast. Carver crossed to the Wisconsin River and then traveled down the Mississippi, emerging at the great trade encampment at Prairie du Chien. Rather than turn south toward New Orleans, his expedition turned north into what is now
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. By the late summer he had reached the
Saint Anthony Falls Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony (), located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, various dams were built ...
at what is now
Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
. He spent some time with the tribe near the falls but turned south, down the Mississippi, to find a more suitable place to spend the winter. During this portion of the trip he came upon a site sacred to the
Dakota people The Dakota (pronounced , or ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe (Native American), tribe and First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultur ...
, ''Waḳaŋ Ṭípi'', which European-Americans have subsequently called Carver's Cave. Now destroyed, it was located in present-day
Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...
. He spent the winter in a tribal village in what is now eastern
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
. The next spring he encountered James Tute and James Stanley Goddard, who had been sent to accompany Carver on his journey. They continued exploring and mapping along the upper
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
through what is now
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
, and
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
. The men headed for Grand Portage on Lake Superior, hoping that Rogers had sent supplies there for them. But instead they found a letter from him, chiding them for their expenditures and warning them to be more thrifty in the future. Unable to proceed without the badly needed supplies, they headed back to Fort Michilimackinac, arriving there on August 29, 1767. Carver learned that his sponsor, Royal Governor Robert Rogers, was under suspicion of plotting treason against England. On December 6, 1767, Rogers was arrested, charged with treason, placed in irons, and put in solitary confinement. While he had a cold, miserable winter in an unheated guardhouse, Carver probably used this time to prepare his journal of the expedition for publication. In the spring of 1768, Carver and Rogers took the first available ship to Detroit. Carver travelled in the relative comfort of a passenger cabin, while Rogers was forced to travel sitting on the ballast rocks in the hold of the ship. Rogers was taken to Montreal to be court-martialed. Although he was acquitted of the charges, he did not return to his position as Royal Governor. Carver submitted a list of expenses to his superiors, but payment was denied on the grounds that Rogers had not had sufficient authority to order such an expedition. Carver was outraged. He believed that he had been legitimately hired by the Crown to map and explore the newly acquired territory. He believed that he had possibly identified a Northwest Passage. He had spent two years working and was left with little to show for it but debt, maps and log books. No one seemed interested. In 1769 Carver left for England to petition the government for his promised payment and to claim the reward for identifying a potential Northwest Passage. He left his wife Abigail in the colonies and never saw her again. He spent the remainder of his life petitioning the English government for his payments. He ultimately received two separate grants from the Crown to cover his expenses, although not the great reward for identifying a Northwest Passage. While working at this lobbying endeavor, he wrote his ''Travels ... '' book, published in 1778. He set up a household with a woman and started a second family in London.


Book

Carver's book, ''Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768'', was an immediate success when first published in 1778. A second edition was published in Dublin followed the next year; over thirty editions and versions have been published since in several languages. The publication of this book was a significant event in the history of the exploration of the American West: Carver was the first English-speaking explorer to venture west of the upper Mississippi River. He anticipated the idea of a
continental divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...
. He was the first to mention a large mountain range to the west (presumably the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...
) that blocks the westward passage and serves as a continental divide. The name 'Oregon' appears in print in his book for the first time, both in the text, and on one of the maps. Carver penetrated farther into the West than any other English explorer before the American Revolution. He stimulated curiosity concerning routes to the Pacific, with questions later satisfied by Alexander Mackenzie and the
Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...
. The book became immensely popular but the profits did not come soon enough for Carver. He died in poverty on January 31, 1780, in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. In the 20th century, the reliability of Carver's narrative has been debated by scholars; examination of Carver's manuscript journal establishes that it differs in important respects from the published version. More recent research suggests that, while Carver carried out the tour he describes, he suppressed the fact that he performed it as a hired agent of Royal Governor
Major Robert Rogers Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Rogers (7 November 1731 – 18 May 1795) was a British Army officer and frontiersman. Born in Methuen, Massachusetts, he fought in King George's War, the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. During ...
, rather than on his own responsibility. In a 1906 essay published in the ''
American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association, for which it is an official publication. It targets readers interested in all periods ...
'', E. G. Bourne summarized his view of Carver's book: "Scholars are in general agreement that much of the work in this volume is an abridgement or adaptation of historical writings by Charlevoix, Adair, and La Hontan. Entire chapters read as near verbatim text from one or more of these other authors."


Legacy and honors

Carver, Minnesota;
Carver County, Minnesota Carver County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 106,922. Its county seat is Chaska. Carver County is named for explorer Jonathan Carver, who in 1766–67, traveled from Boston to the Minn ...
; and Jonathan Association in
Chaska, Minnesota Chaska ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Carver County, Minnesota, Carver County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 27,810 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. An outer ring suburb of the Twin Cities located southwe ...
were named in honor of Carver for his exploration and mapping of the region.


Carver's grant

After Carver's death, John Coakley Lettsom purchased the copyrights to the book. He published a third edition in 1781, "for the relief of the widow and children", Carver's family. Lettsom claimed he had in his possession a deed, signed by two chiefs of the Sioux, giving Carver title to about in what is now Wisconsin and Minnesota. The deed could not be located after the death of Carver's London widow. In 1804, a group of descendants of Carver petitioned the U.S. Congress for ownership rights to a large tract of land in Wisconsin and Minnesota, claiming that the deed, supposedly dated at the "Great Cave, May the 1st, 1767" entitled Carver and his family to over of land. Specifically they identified
the whole of a certain tract or territory of land, bounded as follows, viz.: from the Falls of St. Anthony, running on the east bank of the Mississippi, nearly southeast, as far as Lake Pepin, where the Chippewa joins the Mississippi, and from thence eastward, five days travel, accounting twenty English miles per day, and from thence again to the Falls of St. Anthony, on a direct straight line.
In other words, this triangular tract in northwestern Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota would have been bounded by lines running from modern Minneapolis southeast to Pepin, then due east to near Stevens Point, and from there northwest roughly through
Eau Claire Eau Claire (French for "clear water", ''pl.'' ''eaux claires'') is the name of a number of locations and features in North America. The name is pronounced as if it were spelled "O'Clare". Place names (Canada) Communities *Eau Claire, Calgary, a n ...
to Minneapolis. Congress investigated their claim and ultimately concluded that English law at the time prohibited any land grants to individuals. They also concluded that Carver never made any mention of such a grant in his book or afterwards, and finally, no Sioux in the region had any knowledge of such a transaction having been made by their grandparents' generation. In 1817, Sioux elders in
St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 311,527, making it Minnesota's second-most populous city a ...
, had told Carver's heirs that no chiefs ever existed by the names on the deed. Congress concluded, on Jan. 29, 1823, that it would not grant Carver's heirs the rights to this land in Wisconsin. Land speculators and con-men continued to promote the sale of portions of "Carver's Grant" for another half century. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society:


Works

* ''Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768'', first published in 177

* ''The Journals of Jonathan Carver and Related Documents, 1766-1770''. Edited by John Parker. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1976. This was the original account of Carver's expedition, from which ''Travels'' was distilled. It seems to be much more reliable than the book that was derived from it. * ''A Treatise on the Culture of the Tobacco plant; with the manner in which it is usually cured adapted to northern climates and designed for the use of the landholders of Great Britain''. London, 1779 – Written during the American War of Independence (1775–1783) or, as Carver put it, "the present unhappy dissentions", when trade was disrupted. This treatise described the methods required to grow tobacco in Britain. Carver argues for repealing two acts of parliament from the reign of Charles II, which prohibited the cultivation of tobacco in England. Carver felt that the landowner would profit, revenue could be restored to the treasury by means of a duty on the plants, and smokers would be more than satisfied with the "powerful aromatic" tobacco produced in a northern climate.


Representation in other media

Raymond Bober (writing under the
pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
"Wolfgang Von Bober"), authored a 1979 book called ''The Carver Effect: A Paranormal Experience'' in which he claimed Summerwind mansion, an estate on the coast of West Bay Lake in Wisconsin, was haunted by Carver. A 2005 episode of the
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...
series ''
A Haunting ''A Haunting'' is an American paranormal drama anthology television series that depicts eyewitness accounts of alleged possession, exorcism, and ghostly encounters. The program features narrations, interviews, and dramatic re-enactments based ...
'' claimed that the
ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...
of Carver upset residents of Summerwind.


Papers

Jonathan Carver's papers are available for research use at the
Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Educational institution, educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the Minnesota Terr ...
. They include photostatic copies of a journal of Carver's expedition to the Mississippi River (1766–1767), a Survey journal, and a Dictionary of the Naudowessee language, and typed transcripts of these documents; copies of surveys and deeds to the Carver land grant of 1767, which encompassed some four million acres in present-day western Wisconsin; copies of letters about the French and Indian War (1759) and James Tute's gifts to the Indians (1768); copies of two petitions to the British government (1769–1770) asking that Carver be reimbursed for his expedition to the Mississippi; and a copy of a recommendation by the British government on this request.Jonathan Carver papers
/ref> Other papers relating to Jonathan Carver and the Carver land grant are also available (MHS Library Catalog: Jonathan Carver and related papers).


References


Further reading

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External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carver, Jonathan 1710 births 1780 deaths 18th-century American explorers 18th-century American writers People from colonial Massachusetts American explorers of North America People from colonial Connecticut Explorers of the United States People from Weymouth, Massachusetts People from Canterbury, Connecticut