Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn: Society on the High Plains, 1832-1856

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University of Oklahoma Press, 01 նոյ, 1980 թ. - 354 էջ

Pueblo, Hardscrabble, and Greenhorn were among the very first white settlements in Colorado. In their time they were the most westerly settlements in American territory, and they attracted a lively and varied population of mavericks from more civilized parts of the world-from what became New Mexico to the south and from as far east as England.

The inhabitants of these little walled towns thrived on the rigor and freedom of frontier life. Many were ex-trappers full already of frontier expertise. Others were enthusiastic neophytes happy to escape problems back home. They sought Mexican wives in Taos or Santa Fe or allied themselves with the native Indian tribes, or both. The fur trade and the illegal liquor trade with the Indians were at first the mainstays of their economy. As time went on they extended their activities to farming illegally on the land owned by the Indians and trading their crops and other trade articles. They enjoyed themselves hunting, gambling, trading, and with their women, freely mixing Spanish, Indian, and Anglo-American cultures in a community without laws or bigotry.

This idyll was brought to a close by the Mexican War and the lure of the California Gold Rush of 1849. The expectation of a railroad on the Arkansas brought many of the settlers back, only to be scared away again by the massacre of Pueblo by the Utes in 1854 of which Mrs. Lecompte has reconstructed a very complete record. When the gold seekers rushed to Pikes Peak in 1858 and stayed to establish farms and towns, some of the pioneers of the early days returned with them, and shared their skills and knowledge to make possible the permanent settlements that resulted.

Mrs. Lecompte has documented the history of the region from diaries, letters, and the reports of such distinguished passers-by as J. C. Fremont and Francis Parkman. The result is a complete and compelling account of a neglected part of American frontier life. It is illustrated with more than fifty photographs and contemporary drawings.

From inside the book

Բովանդակություն

George Simpson Learns a Trade
3
Parkes map of New Mexico 1851
9
At Bents Fort 184142
13
William Bent
15
A Sketch of Bents Fort 184445
25
The Mouth of the Fountain
26
The Wahtoyah or Spanish Peaks
33
The Founders
35
The Store at Greenhorn
139
Soldiers on the Arkansas 184546
147
Troops going to Mexico 1847
155
Trade 184547
157
Gentleman Farmer of Hardscrabble 184546
168
Parkman and the Mormons 184647
175
A Mormon family
179
The Bad Winter of 184647
187

The Arkansas Pueblo
45
Model of the Pueblo
47
Indian Pueblo of Taos South House
53
Lives of Limited Enjoyment
54
A Womans Life on the Arkansas
63
Indian Women by Bodmer
65
A Kitchen Scene
71
A Company of Independent Traders 184244
74
The Trapper by Remington
79
Fort Laramie
86
The Liquor Trade
87
A Dry Year in the Whiskey Trade 1843
98
Frémont
103
Hardscrabble in a Wet Year 1844
107
Letter of George S Simpson
110
Oh Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam 1845
127
A herd of buffalo
129
The Beginning of the End 184748
198
Barclays Fort
207
Sketch of Barclays Fort
212
The Tide of Fortune Wanes 184853
216
The Railroad is Coming 185354
227
Charles Autobees
228
An Apology for the Utes
237
Chief Coniache of the Utes
241
Massacre 1854
246
The End of the Beginning
254
Doyle family graves
257
Appendix A First Men at Pueblo
263
Appendix B Location of the Pueblo and Mormon Town
265
Sources for an Account of
270
Selected Sources for the Early History of
329
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Common terms and phrases

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Էջ 342 - College has received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History for his book, THE GREAT PLAINS IN TRANSITION, published last year by the University of Oklahoma Press.

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Հեղինակի մասին (1980)

Janet Lecompte was a graduate of Wellesley College. She received her first historical training arranging the Cragin Collection in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, which her grandmother founded. She was the author of many articles in historical journals on the trans-Mississippi West.

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