Westward, Ho! John Bartleson’s historic journey (Part 2)

By Diane Euston

In the last issue of the Telegraph, we took a look into Jackson County pioneer John Bartleson. As early as 1833, local stories indicate that Bartleson and his family erected a log cabin near the Santa Fe Trail “which acted as a tavern to service passing travelers.” Within a short time, Bartleson became a leader of southern Jackson County – but he couldn’t sit still.

The glowing descriptions of California gave enterprising men in Missouri the idea to look west. Many were influenced by Dr. James Marsh, a former merchant from Independence, who purchased a large ranch in 1837 in current-day Contra Costa County, Cal.
Bartleson and others planned their trek west– just shy of 1,700 miles–joining a young wagon train recruiter named John Bidwell.

Into the Unknown- Electing Leadership

  A total of 69 people, including men, one woman, and at least one child, gathered at Sapling Grove May 16, 1841. The only woman in the party, Nancy Kelsey, was just 18 years old and was a new mother.

  Days earlier on May 10, 1841, a missionary party of 11 bound for the Flathead Nation reached Westport, Mo. to outfit for their journey. In their party was a well-versed leader named Thomas Fitzpatrick (1799-1854). A fur trader, Indian agent and mountain man, Fitzpatrick was experienced in overland trips west. This party also consisted of Jesuits Fr. Pierre De Smet, Fr. Nicholas Point and Fr. Gregory Mengarini along with hunter John Gray, an English traveler and five teamsters.

  When the Bidwell-Bartleson party got wind of the fact that this more experienced and well-equipped party were heading out west, they smartly opted to wait for them so they could travel (at least to Idaho) together.

  While waiting for the missionary party, the inexperienced party, including John Bidwell and John Bartleson, opted to elect leadership. Talbot Green was elected president, John Bidwell was elected secretary and John Bartleson was elected captain.

  Bidwell later wrote, “Bartleson was not the best man for the position, but we were given to understand that if he was not elected captain he would not go; and as he had seven or eight men with him, and we did not want our party diminished, he was chosen.” 

  It would turn out that this party, later known as the Bidwell-Bartleson party, was not especially great at electing leadership positions. In addition to Bartleson having no experience, Talbot Green, president, was later exposed as a fraud and criminal.

  Talbot H. Green (1810-1899) was actually a man named Paul Geddes, an embezzler on the run, who had taken over $100,000 from a Philadelphia bank. He abandoned his wife and four children, and on his trip west to escape prosecution, he took the name of an English man who had died. He reached Westport, Mo. where he joined the party. His “pleasant address” and “evident culture” made him an early leader of the party.

  From the writings of John Bidwell, one learns that he was not a huge fan of John Bartleson’s. Other people, including Fr. Nicholas Point from the missionary party, had a different take of the man. Fr. Point wrote in his journal, “The most remarkable traveler among them was Colonel Bartleson, whom the Americans hand made their leader in their search of fortune in the much-vaunted territory of California. This man, already somewhat advanced in years, calm in temperament but enterprising in character, was kind to us during the whole trip.”

 The motivations of the party of 69 people to take the dangerous and uncharted journey to California varied. Fr. Nicholas Point recalled, “Although their views differed, all agreed on one point, namely, that they must try not to perish on the journey.”

  Bidwell commented in 1877 of the beginning of the journey, “No one of the party knew anything about mountaineering and scarcely anyone had ever been into the Indian Territory, yet a large majority felt that we were fully competent to go anywhere no matter what the difficulties might be or how numerous and warlike the Indians.” 

Travels May-July 1841

  Because the Bidwell-Bartleson party smartly waited for the missionary party to accompany them, their captain, Thomas Fitzpatrick, made most of the calls early-on in their journey west. The party left on May 19, 1841, in a single-file line. Their party included a small wagon, eight wagons drawn by mules and horses and five wagons drawn by 17 yoke of oxen. 

  They made it 12 miles in the first day, and the days that followed averaged 12 to 20 miles per day.

  On May 26, a man named Rev. Joseph Williams caught up with his missionary group and joined the party. John Bidwell wrote in his journal, “He had not arrived in time to start with the company from the settlements, and had traveled entirely alone, without any gun or other weapon of defense, depending wholly on Providence for protection and support.”

  The Bidwell-Bartleson party had a hell of a time keeping up with the speed of the more experienced missionary party. The company decided to vote on whether or not they should continue with them or forge the trail on their own. The danger of leaving Fitzpatrick “who was well acquainted with the Indians” made the decision simple – they would stay with the missionaries.

  On June 5 in western Nebraska, a tornado got very close to the wagon train and certainly scared the green travelers. John Bidwell wrote that evening, “Soon with amazement we saw a lofty water spout, towering like a huge column to support the arch of the sky; and while we were doing with all haste lest it should pass over us and dash our wagons to pieces, it moved off with the swiftness of the wind and was soon lost among the clouds.” 

  While near the south fork of the Platte River on June 13, an unfortunate accident occurred. George Shotwell, an ironic surname, shot himself in the heart while removing his gun out of a wagon. He died just a few minutes later.

  On June 22, 1841, the party reached Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming, about 800 miles from their starting point. As they traveled through the Black Hills, Bidwell noted on July 5, “The hills continue to increase in height.” They had reached Independence Rock, but little did he and the rest of the Bidwell-Bartleson party know that those mountains were about to get exceptionally larger.

  By mid-July, the buffalo and other game grew scarce, so they stopped in order to hunt and cure meat for the journey. Fitzpatrick led them through the Rocky Mountains at or near the South Pass, where William Sublette had blazed a trail years before. The problem was that this trail had only been used once, so they could only see a few of the tracks.

  As they approached the Green River in the Rocky Mountains, “it was found that some of the wagons, including Captain Bartleson’s, had alcohol on board.” Bartleson and others hid this from the party, hoping to find trappers in the mountains “to whom they might sell it.” 

  As luck would have it, they did run into some trappers and they bought the greater part of it.

  The trail they had traversed would later be known as the Oregon Trail.

Departing the Jesuit Party and Heading into the Desert

  On August 11, 1841, just shy of three months into their journey, the Bidwell-Bartleson party split from the missionaries at Soda Springs in modern-day Idaho where they turned toward the Flathead Nation. By this time, Bartleson’s party had shrunk from 69 people to 64 travelers with the death of Shotwell and others that opted to turn back.

  Thirty-two of the 64 – exactly half of the party – continued to follow the missionaries and travel to Oregon. The 32 that left for Oregon had sound reasoning; they “decided not to venture without path or guide into the unknown and trackless region towards California.” 

  The Bidwell-Bartleson party of 32 (including Mrs. Kelsey), gathered as much information about their uncharted adventure as possible from Thomas Fitzpatrick before they “regretfully bade good-by . . . to Father De Smet and his party.” 

  Joseph B. Chiles, one of Bartleson’s friends, later recalled they had “no guide, compass; nothing but the sun to guide them.” 

  Water wasn’t the issue – the problem was finding grass for the animals.

  On August 23, they could see the Great Salt Lake, and three days later, the company appeared to be quite lost. They had heard of the route via-the St. Mary’s River from Dr. Marsh, and it was decided that Bartleson along with Charles Hopper, the most experienced of the group, would forge ahead of the party and explore a safe path on August 29.

  The party awaited word until September 5, with grass scarce and cold weather moving in. They were forced to kill an oxen for its meat. Bartleson and Hopper returned and said that the route on the St. Mary’s River could be reached in five days. 

  On this desperate leg of the trip, the party had trouble finding water, so some of the immigrants had to abandon their wagons and oxen. They had to travel by horseback, as the oxen couldn’t keep up in the horrid conditions.

The Dangers of Mid-September and October

   By September 15, a meeting was called. Desperate, hungry, exhausted and without the comforts of shelter, the Bidwell-Bartleson party painfully made the decision to abandon all their wagons and go on with just saddle and pack animals to lessen the loads.

  For six long and exhausting days, the party followed a stream northwest through canyons, concerned they were headed in the wrong direction. Just one wrong turn and the party would end up in the Great Salt Desert, and one turn too far north would get them lost forever in the Columbia River.

  On September 21, the party was in bad shape when 80 to 90 armed Shoshone Indians, according to Bidwell’s journal, came charging at them from the west. One Shoshone rode ahead of the rest of them, and Bidwell thought they should do the same in order to keep the peace and send a clear message. “But Capt. B[artleson] was perfectly ignorant of Indian customs, and the whole band of savages were suffered to come directly up to us, and almost surrounded our camp,” John Bidwell wrote.

  Another member of the party made gestures to the Indians that showed they weren’t welcome. Bartleson ignorantly yelled, “Let them gratify their curiosity!” 

  Luckily, the event ended with no direct interaction with the Shoshone.

  By October, the party was traveling very fast due to Bartleson’s insistence; the oxen couldn’t keep up with the horses, and after traveling 30 miles on October 5, the party stopped on the Columbia River at dark. Little did they know that they were in present-day Nevada about 40 miles from the California line.

  John Bartleson’s patience with the party was growing limited. Bidwell reported, “Bartleson pushed ahead as fast as his mules were able, caring little that those less fortunate and having oxen were left behind.”

  The Bidwell-Bartleson party took turns accompanying the slow, loose cattle at the end of the train. When it was John Bidwell’s turn, the tensions grew to an all-time high. Bartleson decided, for whatever the reason, to travel so fast that Bidwell couldn’t keep up. 

  By dark, Bidwell was at least 10 miles behind the rest of them and was forced to camp with no blankets or food. 

  The next day, he reached the company who was waiting for him. It only took a few minutes for John Bidwell to realize that the only reason Bartleson had waited for him was “because they had nothing for breakfast until they killed one of the oxen that I was driving.”

  Bartleson approached Bidwell on October 7. He wrote that Bartleson “found fault with enough and wasn’t going to stand for it any longer; that he was going to California and all who could keep up might go with him and the rest could go to hell.” Bartleson then pushed ahead with seven others with provisions for about two days, the rest of the party losing sight of him. 

  A week later on October 14, John Bidwell and the rest of the wagon train caught sight of John Bartleson’s group in the distance. As they stopped to try to determine which route looked best to cross the mountains, Bartleson’s group approached on October 16, starved and defeated.

  John Bartleson and his men had eaten fish and pine nuts to survive, and all the men were very sick. Bidwell noted, “Captain Bartleson, who when we started was a portly man, was reduced to half his former girth.” 

  Bartleson, it seems, had finally learned his lesson. He emphatically stated, “Boys, if I ever get back to Missouri, I will never leave there again. Why, I would be glad to eat from the same trough with my dogs there!”

Dire Straits Before Hitting California

  By October 20, the party was in serious trouble again; groups went out to scout to see if there was a way to continue without turning completely around. A meeting was called, and it was determined that they wouldn’t turn back despite facing nothing but mountains. 

  The Bidwell-Bartleson party was likely near Sonora Pass just west of Nevada. Because they were low on provisions, five horses and mules had to be abandoned. A horse was eaten.

  They were in the snowy mountains, and by October 26, they ate the last of their beef. Facing nothing but even taller mountains in front of them, Charles Hopper commented, “If California lies beyond those mountains we shall never be able to reach it.” 

  Most travelers at this point were on foot, and while some were quite fatigued, others seemed to tolerate the dire circumstances quite well. “Some had appetites so craving that they eat the meat of most of the mule raw, as soon as it was killed; some eat it half roasted, dripping with blood,” Bidwell wrote.

  Fate would save the starving party; a mountain stream led them down into a great valley where another river took them toward a large bay. “Here, they found an Indian who knew the name [Dr.] Marsh, who guided them to his ranch,” historian Doyce Nunis wrote.

  On November 4, 1841, just shy of six months after leaving on their journey, the “weary and half-starved emigrants” reached Dr. Marsh’s home in the Contra Costa valley at the foot of Mt. Diablo.

  What they found was certainly disappointing. Dr. Marsh’s home was three small rooms, made of sun-dried bricks and twigs with no fireplace and a dirt floor.

  The honeymoon with Dr. Marsh was over as quickly as it began. After one night of comfort inside of Marsh’s home, members of the Bidwell-Bartleson party butchered one of his steers and killed two work oxen. He exploded at them, and the men quickly decided to travel to the Mexican quarters at San Jose in search of passports to settle elsewhere.

  John Bidwell didn’t look back. He left for Sutter’s Fort on the Sacramento River where he worked for John Sutter. Later, he became a well-known congressman and senator of California, achieving all he had hoped and dreamed of when he set out west.

Bartleson Back to Jackson County

  By 1842, John Bartleson had become disenfranchised with his California dreams. With the help of Joseph B. Chiles and along with six other men, John Bartleson returned to Independence, Mo. on a variant of the old Spanish Trail from Los Angeles to New Mexico. The party arrived September 9, 1842.

  The journey likely took a lot out of 56-year-old John Bartleson, and he certainly left no writings to tell his side of the journey to California. In all, 69 people departed with all their hopes and dreams, and only 32 arrived at their intended destination. Shockingly, no one died except for Shotwell.

  Seven Jackson County men made the journey to California, and Westport and Kansas City founder John C. McCoy commemorated their pioneer trip in his own writings. “It is proper, then, that these men of Jackson County should be remembered in history, and what more appropriate frontispiece than the grizzled faces of these seven daring pioneers, with that of the portly, gallant old Col. Bartleson, their leader, in the center, could be designed for the next edition of that invaluable historical work,” McCoy wrote. “There would be no need to encircle their heads with the halo of homemade glory.”

  John Bartleson’s mark in American history was likely his biggest personal failure, as the trip warranted him no financial gain or personal recognition in his lifetime. He returned to his farm off Holmes Rd. in southern Jackson County, living there with his wife, four children and his brother, Andrew.

  Tragedy soon struck hopes of any harrowing adventures in Jackson County. On Oct. 7, 1848, six years after returning from California, John Bartleson died. Three days later, his wife was buried next to him. Both likely passed from cholera.

  Their final resting place was marked by a small dry-laid stone fence and impressive marble stones engraved with their names. 

   John’s daughter, Diana, married Joseph B. Chiles’ nephew, Henry, in 1852 and settled onto a farm near Independence. They later moved to Oklahoma where she died in 1899.

   John’s descriptions of the west didn’t scare his own sons; in 1855, Sidney and John, Jr. purchased a freighting business. Unfortunately, Sidney passed away in 1859 and was buried in the small family burial ground next to his parents.

  Daughters Emaline, her husband, Willoughby Thomas, along with John, Jr. and his wife, Susan Young, continued for years to live on the family farm. Susan was the daughter of Solomon Young, and her nephew would later become the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman.

  By the 1880s, the Barlesons had all walked away from their homestead and small cemetery and moved to Arizona where John died in 1896 and Emaline died in 1914.

  Memories of that first journey overland to California by an emigrant wagon train would be left to others on the trip. Little was written about John Bartleson’s legacy in Jackson County past quick mentions in historical accounts of his contributions to the early history of the area. His true legacy blossomed years after his death when hundreds of thousands after him journeyed overland on the California Trail.

  Between 1841 and 1869, 200,000 emigrants took that California Trail – and Jackson County’s own John Bartleson was the first.

  All that physically remains of his legacy in Jackson County and American history is a small, well-kept cemetery on private property which sits just northwest of Holmes Road near Kenneth Road. On top of that high point in Jackson County, his body still rests 176 years after his death.

  It’s a small little space that still holds his name, a small remembrance of the man who was captain of the first overland trip to California in 1841. That trip from our backyard had the greatest influence “in giving impetus to a steady flow of Americans into California” for years to come.

Diane writes a blog on the history of the area. To read more of the stories, go to www.newsantafetrailer.blogspot.com.