| Show OF A FAMOUS when jim baker died at his home on the snake river in wyoming a few days ago ther passed away one of the most famous trappers scouts and frontiersmen the west has ever produced por nearly seventy years jim baker had been a noted figure in the west and of all the hardy men who aided in opening up the wIld wilderness ernese kit jarson carson alone was better known baker was nearly 90 years old at the time of his hie deacy death he came west from illinois which was his birthplace when only 18 years jeaa s old he came as an employed of the american pur fur trading company at laramie Lara roie wyo WY about 1830 and from that time until his death he lived on the plains and in the mountains he was a scout for several expeditions notably for john C fremont and for gen adams in the war after the meeker massacre his comrades were the men who wha first went th through ugh this patt part of the united states after af ter the expedition of lewis and dark clark in 1803 1804 and 1805 one of them gabriel lajeunesse always called by the men of the plates plains gabriel la jee neese was tradition says the hero of Long fellows evangeline baell antoine antohne and nicholas lajeunesse Lajeune sae were his sons others of bakers contemporaries were peter ogden who gave his name to the city cita of ogden utah kit carson another man whose name appears on the map ot of the country and a nd maxwell of maxwell land grant fame baker lived a life more th ruling more adventurous than even a cooper has ever been able to picture for a score years he lived among the indians hunted in the pathless forests of the north and west wandered over the bendles stretches of prairie endured countless count leaa hardships and braved the greatest da dangers agers all this was before the time of the pioneers who date their arrival an a 1858 four times he took a wife from among the indians and once came near paying for a squaw with his life for several years he was hunted by the utes tries and a nd was marked for far torture and death the moment he fell into their hands A dozen times he escaped their vengeance by mere chance several times he was snowbound in the mountains in the dead of winter and nearly starved much of his time for many years was wag spent in evading hostile indians redlan and the number of ids has personal encounters with beasts and men and wars with indiana was evidenced by a mass of scars on his grizzled body the first eight years of BiL bakers kers life in the west were spent in trapping to in the north for the fur company but in 1840 he left the etri employ ploy of the and hunted and trapped on his own account the utes were extremely hostile to the whites but baker succeeded in getting on very friendly terms with ignacio then a young buck and and war chief baker induced a squaw a sister of ignacio Ign aclo to leave the tribe with him ignacio swore vengeance and for a long time baker was was in constant tear fear lest some ute tte T should take him unawares finally the squaw returned to her tribe and for his own safety baker joined the sioux indians and became a sioux squaw man afterward he left the sioux tor for the and also lived for a time with the Arapah oes there are incidents without number told of baker by old pioneers in 1857 baker acted as scout for captain marceas Marce ys expedition that went into utah to drive out the mormons cormons Mor mons the mormons cormons stole a march on marcey and drove oft off all his horses and mules taking the greater share of the provisions the men were in a desperate condition baker offered to cross the main range and go to fort garland for relief it was early in december and the snow on the range was from two to forty feet deep baker started to work his way straight across the range he became worn out and nearly famished in descending the range he became so exhausted that he was forced to give up and would have perished had not a band of ute indians found him and cared for him had they recognized him he would have been killed because the ute had marad him for death he succeeded in reaching the fort in safety and securing the necessary relief at another time baker was camped alone in one end of a canyon and a party of white men were camped below him about 2 in the morning baker awoke came down to the camp and warned them to hurry to a place where they could defend themselves he said he felt that the red men were going to attack them two hours afterward a war band descended on the camp which by that time had bad been vacated in 1861 baker with jim beckwith took up a ranch on what Is now capitol hill denver beckwith was a mulatto and for a lonk long time chief of the crow indians he was born at st charles mo in 1798 and went west in 1818 the crows had never seen a and in some way conceived the idea that beckwith was a crow indian who had been stolen from their tribe when a child they watched their opportunity and kidnapped beckwith afterward making him chief he became a great warrior and was much feared by the indians baker and he were great friends ano went into partnership when beckwith left his tribe in 1860 beckwith married a colored woman and in 1864 murdered a man named jim payne who ha insisted on paying attentions to his wife beckwith and baker were fast friends when sober but quarreled and fought like tigers when drunk in 1869 1861 baker had one side of his face torn off by the explosion of a rifle many versions of the affair have been given the correct one has rarely been told in indian camp about twenty miles from denver the agent hod had distributed tri buted a lot of rifles and cartridges baker succeeded oln getting hold of one an aa he tried to fire it the cartridge in the stock exploded and blew it to pieces one half balf of bakers face was torn to pieces without a complaint and all the time conscious he stood the tide ride of twenty miles to denver where dr strode fixed up ala torn tom jaw by the use of wooden pins adno and sewed it up thre months afterward balc baker 1 er haq en A recovered but he carried a bad sear scar to the end of his days bakers love for free life and the excitement cit ement t of fighting and hunting was unbounded on one occasion he killed two full grown grizzly cubs with a huntin ing knife when his rifle lay unused on the ground he and a companion saw the two cubs as they were pasing up the side of a mountain baker proposed thet each of them should kill one of the cubs with a hunting knife alone because it would be a great thing to tell about afterward putting aside their guns the two hunters attacked baker killed the cub and went to the rescue of his friend who was hard pressed and yelling for help As soon as baker went to his assistance the other man ran away baker killed the second cub if baker had one incurs incurable ble failing it was gambling and he usually lost on one occasion when he had been unusually fortunate in gathering a large stock of furs he made up his mind to return to the states buy a farm and settle down for life on reaching a rendezvous where many of his kind were assembled he was coaxed into a game of spanish monte and lost all he possessed the value of his pelts wae about he then went back to the mountains where he remained to the time of his death baker once went to new mew york city where he was annoyed by the narrowness of the streets and the height of the buildings 1 I wish you would show me the way out of these canyons he remarked to a friend whom he met baker belonged to a generation that has almost passed away and a few more years will take the remaining m members embers of that little band of men who tramped the wilderness ahead of civilization new york sun |
