John Charles Fremont was arguably the best-known explorer of the 19th century American West.  Fremont was an important figure in Gold Rush history and one of the largest landowners in the Gold Country. He was also its greatest self-promoting and self-glorifying explorer.  Fremont achieved great wealth and fame, but he died in chronic poverty -- a victim of poor judgment and rash investments.  He was enthusiastic but star-crossed.  John C. Fremont’s life is a testament to the startling accomplishments and crushing disappointments that many westerners would experience.

            Fremont was born in Savannah, Georgia, on January 21, 1813.  Early in life he accompanied his mother to Charleston, South Carolina, where he grew to manhood.  John Fremont attended college -- briefly -- but was expelled for “incorrigible negligence.”  Soon afterwards, he shipped out on the war sloop Natchez as a mathematics instructor.  By 1836, Fremont had returned to the United States.  He would serve as a railroad and Indian lands surveyor in the Carolinas and Tennessee.  In 1838, Fremont was commissioned a second lieutenant of the U.S. Topographical Corps.  His first assignment was to assist in a reconnaissance of the Minnesota and Dakota territories.

            In 1841, John C. Fremont’s life would change dramatically.  In that year he would marry Jessie Benton, daughter of the prominent Senator from Missouri and ardent champion of Manifest Destiny, Thomas Hart Benton.  With Jessie’s promotion and Senator Benton’s influence, Fremont quickly gained increased notice within government circles.

            In 1842, the first of Fremont's two most successful expeditions to the west was organized.  Its purpose was to investigate South Pass and chart the best route to Oregon, an increasingly desirable locale in the 1840s.  With the assistance of Kit Carson and the publication of reports, written with Jessie, Fremont became well-known.  His second exploration in 1843 - 1844 would make him famous.  In those years, Fremont’s party crossed the Plains to the Rockies, explored the Great Salt Lake, traveled to Washington, the south into eastern California, crossed the Sierra Nevada at Carson Pass, trekked to Sutter’s Fort, went south into the San Joaquin Valley, then veered eastward along the Old Spanish Trail and Arkansas River in returning to St. Louis.  His journal of the second expedition was even more wildly popular than the first and cemented Fremont’s reputation as The Great Pathfinder.

            The accounts of the these two expeditions were printed together for the Congress as Report of the Exploring Expedition in the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843 - ‘44.    The journals were reprinted many times over in both official and unofficial versions, some complete, some abridged, with a few editions printed in England and Germany.

            The reports were similar in structure.  Each account contains daily descriptions of events and scientific data.  Fremont's duties were remarkably diverse, including collection of geographical information, military intelligence, road surveys, zoological and botanical observation, rock collecting, soil and water analysis, and recommendations for settlement and land policy.  All these various aspects are reflected in Fremont’s commentaries.  But what fascinated the public was Fremont’s tales of courage, beauty, vision, and cleverness exhibited by his exploratory corps during their travels.  Mixed with descriptions of food scarcity, Indian dangers, logistical problems, and harsh weather, the Fremont expedition reports are par survey and part rip-roaring adventure.  It is little wonder that the journals were so popular.

            John C. Fremont’s role after the second expedition became less explorer and more soldier-politician.  Following a third expedition through the Rockies, Fremont was influential in the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846 California.  He was active in the Mexican-American War, recapturing Southern California.  Following a dispute with Brigadier General Stephen Kearny over control of California, Fremont was ordered to Washington, D.C., where he was court-martialed for disobedience and mutiny.  He was ordered to be dismissed from the army.  President James K. Polk canceled the order, but Fremont resigned in protest anyway.

            Fremont organized a fourth expedition in 1848.  It was largely a failure, best known for the deaths of one-third of his men in a blizzard.  Soon after California achieved statehood in 1850, Fremont was elected senator from the newly minted Golden State.  He served only a short time.  In 1853, Fremont outfitted a fifth expedition to cross the Rockies in midwinter.  It was not successful.  In fact, most considered it a disaster.  Fremont did not publish accounts of either his fourth or fifth expeditions.

            In 1856, John C. Fremont was the first presidential candidate of the fledgling Republican Party.  He lost to the Democrat James Buchanan.

            Fremont’s life began to deteriorate after that as his gold mining and real estate interests fizzled.  Reinstated to the Army during the Civil War, his service record was unremarkable.  Following the war, he invested heavily in poorly conceived railroad projects, and lost his fortune.  From 1878 - 1883, Fremont was Governor of Arizona Territory.  His legacy in the post was “to have done nothing worse than neglect his duties,” in the words of the often splenetic historian Hubert Howe Bancroft.

            By the time of his death in 1890 at age 77, John C. Fremont was famous -- and broke.  Shortly before his demise, Congress had promoted him to the rank of Major General (largely as an act of charity) and increased his pension.  Fremont died financially bereft, but rich with experiences that helped define the American West for those who followed.

 

Photo credits:

Fremont 2. jpg - Credit:  Museum of Local History, Fremont, California

Fremont 3.jpg – Credit:  Mathew Brady Studio, Ambrotype 1856, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.