James Clyman

James or Jim Clyman (1792 – 1881) was a mountain man and an explorer and guide in the American Far West.

Early Life

James Clyman was born on a farm that belonged to George Washington in Fauquier County, Virginia in 1792. Clyman's father started to do a lot of migrating around when Clyman was 15, moving from Virginia to Pennsylvania, and then to Ohio. In 1811, his family decided to stay in Stark County, Ohio. In 1812, Clyman became a ranger to fight the Shawnee Indians. After fighting the Indians, he decided to become a farmer in Indiana, where he also traded with local Indians. By 1821, he was a surveyor working near the Little Vermilion River in Illinois. He was hired by a son of Alexander Hamilton, who was running government surveys, to make travels along the Sangamon River.

Mountain Man

While collecting his pay in Saint Louis in 1823, he met William H. Ashley, and joined Ashley's 1823 expedition. James Clyman the mountain man was born.

Clyman was with Ashley's men from 1823 to 1827. He fought the Arikara Indians in the Arikara War in 1823. He also traveled with Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick through the South Pass. He also was a member of the party of four that paddled around the Great Salt Lake and put away the myth of the Buenaventura River.

After his explorations, he bought a farm near Danville, Illinois, and also set up a store there. Then, the Blackhawk War broke out and Clyman joined the fight.

After the war, he travelled back West and crossed the Great Salt Lake Desert and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. On his way back, he met the Donner-Reed Party and accompanying parties and advised them to go no further. They did not heed his advice and ended up cannibalizing many members of their parties after reaching the Sierra Nevada.

Clyman settled in Wisconsin following his trek back to the Midwest. He lived there for the rest of his life.

References

* Morgan, Dale L. "Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the American West". University of Nebraska Press, 1964.
* Stone, Irving. "Men to Match my Mountains". New York, 1956.