Jim Bridger
| Jim Bridger | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
James Felix Bridger March 17, 1804 Richmond, Virginia |
| Died | July 17, 1881 (aged 77) Kansas City, Missouri |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Frontiersman |
James Felix Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was among the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820–1850, as well as mediating between native tribes and encroaching whites. He was of English ancestry, and his family had been in North America since the early colonial period.
Jim Bridger had a strong constitution that allowed him to survive the extreme conditions he encountered walking the Rocky Mountains from what would become southern Colorado to the Canada–US border. He had conversational knowledge of French, Spanish and several native languages. He would come to know many of the major European American explorers of the early west, including Kit Carson, George Armstrong Custer, Hugh Glass, John Frémont, Joseph Meek, and John Sutter. Bridger was a young contemporary of British and American pathfinders including Peter Skene Ogden, Jedediah Smith, and William Sublette. In 1830, Smith and his associates sold their fur company to Bridger and his associates naming it the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Bridger was part of the second generation of mountain men and pathfinders who explored the American West that followed the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804.
James (Jim) Felix Bridger was born on March 17, 1804, in Richmond, Virginia. His father, James Bridger, was an innkeeper in Richmond, and his mother was James' wife Chloe. About 1812 his parents and the young Bridger moved to the vicinity of St. Louis. At the age of 13 Bridger was orphaned when both his parents died. Receiving no formal education, unable to read or write, Bridger was apprenticed to a blacksmith. Bridger remained illiterate for the rest of his life. On March 20, 1822, at the age of 18, Bridger left his apprenticeship having responded to the St. Louis Missouri Republican "want ad" and joined General William Ashley's Upper Missouri Expedition, a party that included Jedediah Smith. Ashley's expedition included fur trapping on the sources of the Missouri River. For the next 20 years Bridger would repeatedly traverse from the Canada–US border and the southern line of the Colorado, from the Missouri River westward to Idaho and Missouri, either as an employee of or partner in the fur trading business.
...
Wikipedia