Expeditions of Fowler and James to Santa Fe, 1821

General Thomas James

When Pike returned from his western expedition and related his experiences in Santa Fe and other places among the Spaniards, his accounts excited great interest in the east, which resulted in further exploits. In 1812, an expedition was undertaken by Robert McKnight, James Baird, Samuel Chambers, Peter Baum, Benjamin Shrive, Alfred Allen, Michael McDonald, William Mines, and Thomas Cook, all citizens of Missouri Territory; they were arrested by the Spaniards, charged with being in Spanish territory without a passport, and thrown into the calabazos of Chihuahua, where they were kept for nine years. In 1821, two of them escaped, and coming down Canadian and Arkansas rivers met Hugh Glenn, owner of a trading house at the mouth of the Verdigris, and told him of the wonders of Santa Fe. Inspired by the accounts of these travelers, Glenn engaged in an enterprise with Major Jacob Fowler and Captain Pryor for an expedition from the Verdigris to Santa Fe.

Establishment of Fort Smith in 1817

Quapaw Cession Map

The white population in Arkansas in 1817 had increased to several thousand, whose protection, as well as that of the Cherokee people living in that territory, from the continued hostilities of the Osage, required the establishment of a military post at the western border dividing the white settlements from the Osage. From Saint Louis came further news of threatened hostilities by the Osage near Clermont’s Town, and a report that Major William Bradford with a detachment of United States riflemen, and accompanied by Major Long, topographical engineer, had left that city for the purpose of establishing a military post on … Read more

Jane Todd Slover of Bath NY

SLOVER, Jane Todd7, (Eleazer6, Ruel5, Job4, Ithamar3, Michael2, Christopher1) born in Dryden, N. Y., died Feb. 1908, married in 1853, Harry Slover, who died in 1910, in Bath, N. Y. Children: I. Ruel, b. Sept. 19, 1854, in Dryden, N. Y. II. Hattie, b. Sept. 10, 1856, in Hanover, Ill.; she lived in Elgin, Ill.