| Show F fifty i f t y F famous a m 0 u s frontiersmen by ELMO SCOTT WATSON the pioneer photographer VERY summer lor for the last few E EVERY years a gray haired new yorker has been setting out on a romantic journey he Is william 11 jackson past four score years in age who has been back bach tracking on the path of hl youth the historic oregon trail among the thousands clio passel passed over that trail jackson Is unique for he was the pioneer photographer of that highway of a westward fa farent rl lit nation the first man to traverse it with the crude photo photographic graphic material of 65 years ago to ninke inake a plato pictorial rial record of the country through which it ran in its primitive state and to make hundreds of photographs of indians among them chiefs and warriors warr lora who became famous by their deeds on the warpath karpath and in the council lodge born la in new york in 1843 jackson became nn an itinerant artist a map maker in the union army during the civil war a village photographer afterwards er then a fortune seeker in the trans mississippi west in 67 he be was a tor for a freighters outfit hauling supplies from nebraska city on the missouri to the valley of the great salt lake in utah next he and his brother set up as photographers in the booming frontier ton toa of Oni omaha alla but when the union pacific began building west jackson left his brother to run the studio and started out to record what was happening in what was then the real wild west to get pictures he took the chance of losing his scalp but he got the pictures so successful was he that dr 0 V hayden head of the united states geological survey offered him a job as photographer tor for the expedition which started out to in 1870 to survey the old oregon mormon trail and the old overland stage route for the next ten years he accompanied other surveying sun eying expeditions and it was on these expeditions that he took the pictures of scenes in the west indians frontier posts etc which have become such a priceless heritage to posterity in 1871 he made the first photographs of the marvels of the yellowstone country and ills his pictures as well as the disco verle verlen of and the specimens collected by the hayden expedition of which he be was a member played an important part in the creation of the yellowstone national park in 1872 in recent years mr jackson has been research secretary of the oregon trail memorial association in which role he Is completing the work started when he was not only a frontiersman himself but the pictorial historian of the frontier the first forty niner miner 0 ONE NE spring day in the year 1843 a horseman came galloping through the streets of san francisco sprang from his weary horse and rushed through the plaza hatless and travel stained waving aloft a little bottle filled iab with some shining particles and shouting gold gold gold from the american river thus it was that sam brannan frontiersman and adventurer won the title of the first forty niner 11 for he was the first to bring to sa san n francisco authentic news of the discovery of gold by james W Mars marshall ball near fort but this was not the only historic first in the career of sam brannan back in the late thirties and early tor for lies he had been a journeyman printer a free lance writer an editor and a natural born promoter also he was a full fledged elder in the church of the latter day saints until the mormon leaders a little later had occasion and very good reason to expel him in july 1846 he brought to california a colon of some mormons cormons Mor mons the first american colonists to reach yerba buena the little spanish settlement on san francisco bay immediately he began on the series of his historic firsts he fie preached the first english sermon ever heard there he solemn laed the first american marriage on soil lie fie set up the first flour mill and pave gave the settlement its first newspaper the california star after lie he was expelled from the mormon church he be became the first call california promoter by getting out a special edition of his star and sending 2000 copies of the paper overland to the mississippi valley and the eastern states extolling the virtues of the country to LU prospective settlers then came the discovery of gold antl and Bran inns role as the first forty nin er ills his sensational announcement of the gold discovery de populated san francisco within a few days and resulted in Sut lers little kingdom of new helvetia being overrun by a swarm of gold seekers in the wild era that followed brannan prospered lie he was gambler and banker merchant and hotel owner importer and exporter gold digger and real estate speculator and smuggler As san francisco grew he loomed larger and larger on its horizon and at last was ruling it like it a chinese mandarin then misfortune overtook him ills later career was one of ups up and downs but he never remained entirely down and when he ha died in iw at the age of seventy he was fairly prosperous in contrast to the poverty which had overtaken those other two early forty biners johann august sutter the former king of 0 new helvetia and james W marshall 0 1933 eastom newspaper union |
