Post by Woody Williams on Aug 2, 2005 10:23:58 GMT -5
I found a biography on Jeremiah Johnston (Johnson).
Birth: unknown
Death: Jan. 21, 1900
Western Frontiersman. Standing 6 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighing in at 240 pounds, he lived and thrived in the western mountainous region of the United States and survived the end of the Mountain Man era of the United States’ settlement to become both fact and legend in his own time.
He was a feared Mountain Man, accomplished fur-trapper, and steamboat “woodhawk” who supplied cord wood for money, he started and ended his own personal war against an entire tribe of Indians, fought in the Civil War, and acted as both Deputy Sheriff and Town Marshall before he died of old age (70+ years) in 1900.
In the fall of 1843, the steamboat “Thames” from St. Louis transported the young trapper to the St. Joseph eddy in the Blacksnake Hills of Wyoming. Three years later, he was well known to the steamboat captains as a reliable supplier of wood for their boilers. At this time, the “Crazy Woman” saga depicted in the movie, “Jeremiah Johnson”, actually took place as Jane Morgan’s family was massacred by Indians in the Musselshell River basin of the Rockies. Johnston tracked down and killed all of her assailants.
In 1847, Johnston’s pregnant Flathead Indian wife was killed and scalped by a raiding party of Crow Indians while he was away hunting.
Barely a year later, his infamous war against the whole tribe of Crows was well known and established. He would eat the liver of his slain enemies as a sign that he had conquered yet another killer of his young Indian squaw. This gruesome practice earned him the title of Dapiek Absaroka (Crow Killer) by the Indians, and, more generally, “Liver-Eating” Johnston.
For more than twenty years he maintained a solitary, wary, daily mortal battle with the Crows. In 1869 he made a peace with them.
On February 24, 1864, he joined the Union army in St. Louis and rapidly rose in the ranks from horseman to sharpshooter. Johnston was honorably discharged on September 23, 1865.
Thirteen years later, in 1878, “Bear Claws” Chris Lapp, one of his compatriots, was found murdered in his cabin. Johnston and “Del” Gue killed all of the Indians involved and the traders who sold them their rifles and ammunition.
By the time 1887 came to pass, he was in his sixties but he was still feared, respected, and dominant. He had already served as the Deputy Sheriff of Leadville (Billings), Colorado, and he was elected Town Marshall of Red Lodge, Montana in 1888.
The brutally vigorous existence that he led eventually caught up with Johnston. In 1895, his health began to fail him rapidly. He was forced to enter the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Los Angeles in the last month of 1899. Exactly a month later, on January 21, 1900, he died.
In 1972, Warner Brothers released the motion picture, “Jeremiah Johnson”, starring Robert Redford as the grizzled Mountain Man. His portrayal of Johnston’s life was much tamer than the reality. The movie was based on two books about Johnston; one, “Mountain Man” by Vardis Fisher, is extremely romantic and paints the trapper as a poetry-loving, peaceful hunter.
The other, “Crow Killer”, by Raymond W. Thorp and Robert Bunker, is a more factual, documentary-styled novel. After reading the second novel, Tri Robinson, a 7th grade teacher from Lancaster, California, worked with his students to have the body of Johnston reburied in Bob Edgar’s recreated western town, Old Trail Town, in Cody Wyoming on June 8, 1974. He now rests near the face of one of the cliffs that he visited in his later years. (bio by: Bob Dollenmayer)
Birth: unknown
Death: Jan. 21, 1900
Western Frontiersman. Standing 6 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighing in at 240 pounds, he lived and thrived in the western mountainous region of the United States and survived the end of the Mountain Man era of the United States’ settlement to become both fact and legend in his own time.
He was a feared Mountain Man, accomplished fur-trapper, and steamboat “woodhawk” who supplied cord wood for money, he started and ended his own personal war against an entire tribe of Indians, fought in the Civil War, and acted as both Deputy Sheriff and Town Marshall before he died of old age (70+ years) in 1900.
In the fall of 1843, the steamboat “Thames” from St. Louis transported the young trapper to the St. Joseph eddy in the Blacksnake Hills of Wyoming. Three years later, he was well known to the steamboat captains as a reliable supplier of wood for their boilers. At this time, the “Crazy Woman” saga depicted in the movie, “Jeremiah Johnson”, actually took place as Jane Morgan’s family was massacred by Indians in the Musselshell River basin of the Rockies. Johnston tracked down and killed all of her assailants.
In 1847, Johnston’s pregnant Flathead Indian wife was killed and scalped by a raiding party of Crow Indians while he was away hunting.
Barely a year later, his infamous war against the whole tribe of Crows was well known and established. He would eat the liver of his slain enemies as a sign that he had conquered yet another killer of his young Indian squaw. This gruesome practice earned him the title of Dapiek Absaroka (Crow Killer) by the Indians, and, more generally, “Liver-Eating” Johnston.
For more than twenty years he maintained a solitary, wary, daily mortal battle with the Crows. In 1869 he made a peace with them.
On February 24, 1864, he joined the Union army in St. Louis and rapidly rose in the ranks from horseman to sharpshooter. Johnston was honorably discharged on September 23, 1865.
Thirteen years later, in 1878, “Bear Claws” Chris Lapp, one of his compatriots, was found murdered in his cabin. Johnston and “Del” Gue killed all of the Indians involved and the traders who sold them their rifles and ammunition.
By the time 1887 came to pass, he was in his sixties but he was still feared, respected, and dominant. He had already served as the Deputy Sheriff of Leadville (Billings), Colorado, and he was elected Town Marshall of Red Lodge, Montana in 1888.
The brutally vigorous existence that he led eventually caught up with Johnston. In 1895, his health began to fail him rapidly. He was forced to enter the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Los Angeles in the last month of 1899. Exactly a month later, on January 21, 1900, he died.
In 1972, Warner Brothers released the motion picture, “Jeremiah Johnson”, starring Robert Redford as the grizzled Mountain Man. His portrayal of Johnston’s life was much tamer than the reality. The movie was based on two books about Johnston; one, “Mountain Man” by Vardis Fisher, is extremely romantic and paints the trapper as a poetry-loving, peaceful hunter.
The other, “Crow Killer”, by Raymond W. Thorp and Robert Bunker, is a more factual, documentary-styled novel. After reading the second novel, Tri Robinson, a 7th grade teacher from Lancaster, California, worked with his students to have the body of Johnston reburied in Bob Edgar’s recreated western town, Old Trail Town, in Cody Wyoming on June 8, 1974. He now rests near the face of one of the cliffs that he visited in his later years. (bio by: Bob Dollenmayer)
