William Lewis Manly
| William L. Manly | |
|---|---|
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| Born | William Lewis Manly April 6, 1820 St. Albans, Vermont, U.S. |
| Died | February 5, 1903 (aged 82) Lodi, California, U.S. |
| Occupation |
Fur Hunter Guide Farmer Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Mary Jane Woods |
| Relatives | Ebenezer Manl (father) Phoebe (Calkins) Manly (mother) |
William Lewis Manly (April 6, 1820 – February 5, 1903) was an American pioneer of the mid-19th century. He was first a fur hunter, a guide of Westward bound caravans, a seeker of gold and then a farmer and writer in his later years.
He wrote an autobiography, first published with the title From Vermont to California, then a second edition with the title Death Valley in '49, that tells of the pioneer experience in America's Far West, in particular the 1848 California Gold Rush.
Manly was born near St. Albans, Vermont, the son of Ebenezer Manly and Phoebe (Calkins) Manly. In 1829, at the age of nine, Manly left for Ohio with his family. Later, as a pioneer, he went to Michigan, prior to statehood. He then went fur trapping in Wisconsin and in Ohio and the Dakota Territory.
In 1849, at age 29, Manly joined the thousands of American Forty-niners traveling to California to participate in the Gold Rush. He began traveling overland from Wisconsin.
Upon reaching the Green River, just west of South Pass Manly and a half dozen other men tried to float to California by floating on an abandoned ferry they found down the Green to the Colorado River, then on to California. As had William Ashley done almost 25 years previously, they put in the river in Wyoming, and floated through the canyon of the Gates of Lodore. But, unlike Ashley, who disembarked at the mouth of the Duchesne River after experiencing the treacherous canyon, Manly may have traveled further down, to present day Green River, Utah where the Old Spanish Trail crossed the river. Wherever they did disembark, they were met by Chief Walkara, who helped them to travel overland to the Wasatch Front. It was twenty years later, 1869, that John Wesley Powell's party was successful in floating further down the Green to the Colorado, then on to the California/Arizona border.
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Wikipedia