James Pierson Beckwourth (abt. 1798 - 1866)

Born about 6 Apr 1798 in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Virginia, United States [uncertain]

Ancestors

Died 29 Oct 1866 at about age 68 in Denver, Colorado, United States

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Biography

James Beckwourth is Notable.

James Beckwourth was involved in the westward expansion of the USA. See Trails and Wagon Trains.

Jim Beckwourth is credited with discovering a new route to central California during the Gold Rush: from present-day Reno, Nevada, called the Beckwourth Pass. He built a ranch, trading post, and hotel in the Sierra Nevada Valley which became the village of Beckwourth, California. Also an early resident of Pueblo, Colorado.

Jim Beckwourth left an autobiography and has been the subject of other biographies. Despite this, little is known of his antecedents and early life, though the lack of knowledge hasn't prevented much being written, and evolving into accepted fact by repetition.

Towards the end of his life, Jim related his life story to a ghostwriter named Thomas D. Bonner, who had a view to publishing it for the pulp-fiction market. There is of course the question of how much the bare facts were elaborated upon by Jim himself, known as a romancer, and how much further they may have been enhanced by the writer. Only the published version survives: The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth (1856).

According to this, Jim was born in 1798 in Fredericksburg, VA. His biographers rely on this, while at the same time insisting that he must have got it wrong - owing to advancing years - and was really born in 1800, and further west in Frederick County, VA.

The basis for this is that a Jennings Beckwith paid land tax in Frederick County in that year. This Jennings is then supposed to be Jim's father.

Research Notes

The circularity is evident. If we knew for a fact that Jim's birthplace was Frederick County, it would be reasonable to identify Jennings Beckwith as his father. If we knew for a fact that Jennings was his father, it would be reasonable to "correct" his stated place of birth. As it is, the only basis for either supposition is the other supposition.

Meanwhile, relevant research questions remain ignored. There were early Beckwiths in Fredericksburg, whose origins have not been traced. And there were two men called Jennings Beckwith, cousins, but the life of the other one has yet to be investigated, though this is essential to avoid confusion. In fact it's not even entirely clear which Jennings paid the land tax, or how much else of the "known" life of the "known" Jennings wasn't actually his.

Sources

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 24 April 2019, 04:31), entry for James Pierson Beckwourth(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LZ54-8Q1); contributed by various users.
• Wikipedia: James_Beckwourth
• Elinor Wilson.
• Encyclopedia.com

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q1374280
• James P. Beckwourth in Utah: between 1824 and 1826. It is said that, "For several years he traveled in and out of Cache Valley and the Salt Lake Ogden areas trapping, hunting, and exploring. Among his comrades were Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, James Clyman, William Sublette, and Jedediah Smith." Blacks in Utah History: An Unknown Legacy, Peoples of Utah by Ronald G. Coleman.

• Fact: Other ( 1825) Of, Idaho, Bannock Tribe, Native American
• Fact: Occupation (1839-1840 AND OTHER YEARS) INDIAN TRADER/ LIQUOR DEALER INDIAN COUNTRY
• Fact: Residence (1842-1843 (Took wife Louisa Sandoval)) "Fort Pueblo" Colorado (trade center for "Mountain Men")
• Fact: Occupation (1846) HORSE STEALING (from the enemy) FROM CALIFORNIA RANCHERS to "Fort Pueblo" - their trading post in Colorado
• Fact: Occupation (1848) U.S. MAIL DELIVERY COURIER FROM NIPOMO, CALIFORNIA TO MONTERY, CALIFORNIA
• Fact: Other ( 1865) Cheyenne Tribe,Native American
• Fact: Burial (1866) Laramie, Dakota Territory, United States
• Fact: Obituary (1950-1986) Butte, California, United States
• Fact: http://familysearch.org/v1/LifeSketch Famous African-American mountain-man of the Old West, he discovered a route to California north of Donner Pass which follows the route of the present-day Feather River.

For more on the Jim Beckworth story: Book by Elinor Wilson, titled : "Jim Beckworth: Black Mountain Man and War Chief of the Crows"

From a recent Book title below:

• page 117 of" INDIANS, ALCOHOL, and the ROADS to TAOS and SANTA FE", by William E. Unrau (2013 University Press of Kansas), is the following:

In 1836 for example, distiller Simon Turley sent one of his most trusted employees to the upper Arkansas and South Platte to market flour and alcohol produced at his Arroyo Hondo distilley just north of Taos. In 1840 former Bent, St. Vain & Co. employee Jim Beckworth returned to the upper Arkansas from Taos with alcohol "for the Cheyenne trade," in competition with his former employers.

• page 119 - Not far distance from Bent's Fort, trader James Beckworth reported in 1840 that one pint of alcohol, costing no more than six cents (in Missouri), was manufactured into five times the quantity of whiskey, usually one pint for one buffalo robe, which brought ten dollars or more on the St. Louis market. In more recent times it has been determined that white traders paid the Southern Cheyennes in alcohol for a robe that could bring up to at Westport.