Biographies of key figures in the history of the West
This book features a huge and diverse cast of characters. I tried pretty hard to search out quotes and stories to make key characters come alive. Here are some of the sources that I found most helpful.
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Ambrose, Stephen.
Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors
. New York: Doubleday, 1975.
Anderson, Irving. W.
A Charbonneau Family Portrait.
NPS booklet.
Bankes, James. “Wild Bill Hickok.”
Wild West Magazine
, August 1996.
De Bruhl, Marshall.
Sword of San Jacinto: A Life of Sam Houston.
New York: Random House, 1993.
Fellman, Michael.
Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman
. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1995.
Fleming, Walter L. “Pap Singleton, The Moses of the Colored Exodus.”
American Journal of Sociology
15 (July 1909): PP Nos.
Foote, Shelby.
The Civil War: A Narrative,
vol. 3. New York: Random House, 1974.
Graham, W. A.
The Custer Myth: A Source Book of Custeriana.
Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1995.
Leckie, Shirley A.
Elizabeth Bacon Custer and the Making of a Myth
. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.
Rosa, Joseph G.
Wild Bill Hickok: The Man & His Myth
. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996.
Sandburg, Carl.
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years,
1-vol. ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1954.
Seigenthaler, John.
James K. Polk, 1845â1849.
The American Presidents. New York: Times Books, 2003.
Thomasma, Kenneth.
The Truth About Sacagawea
. Jackson, Wyo.: Grandview Publishing Co., 1997.
Utley, Robert.
The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull
. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.
“Virginia Reed Elopes.”
Illinois Journal
, April 16, 1850.
Williams, Jean Kinney.
Bridget “Biddy” Mason
. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2006.
Memoirs and other firsthand accounts by participants
These sources were by far the most important to me in writing this bookâwhich explains why the list is so long. And you don't always have to go to libraries to search for this stuff. These days you can find many of these texts online at the Library of Congress site (
www.loc.gov
) or at the websites of universities. Though sometimes I read a book online and loved it so much I just had to order a real copy, like with Preuss's
Exploring with Frémont
and James Beckwourth's
Adventures
. Hey, I said I was a history nerd. I mean, story detective.
Abbott, E. C.
We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher.
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.
Beckwourth, James P.
The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856.
Black Elk.
Black Elk Speaks: The Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, as told to John G. Neihardt
. New York: MJF Books, 1932.
Brown, James S.
California Gold: An Authentic History of the First Find with the Names of Those Interested in the Discovery
. Salt Lake City: Pacific Press Publishing Co., 1894.
Carson, J. H.
Early Recollections of the Mines
. Pamphlet published in
San Joaquin Republican
, 1852.
Chivington, John M. “Reports of Col. John M. Chivington,” in
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate
Armies,
vol. 41. Washington, D.C.: United States War Department, 1893.
âââ. “Testimony of Colonel J. M. Chivington.” Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Massacre of Cheyenne Indians, 38th Cong., 2nd sess. (Washington, 1865), pp. 4â12, 56â59, 101â8.
Christman, Enos.
One Man's Gold: The Letters and Journal of a Forty-niner
. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1930.
Clark, William, and Meriwether Lewis.
The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
. Edited by Gary E. Moulton. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
Clyman, James. “Narrative by James Clyman,” original manuscript owned by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, CITY.
Custer, Elizabeth B.
Boots and Saddles, or Life in Dakota with General Custer.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1885.
âââ.
Following the Guidon
. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. Donner, Elizabeth.
The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate
. Los Angeles: Grafton Publishing Co., 1920.
Ebutt, Percy G.
Emigrant Life in Kansas
. London: S. Sonnenschein and Co., 1886.
Howard, Oliver O.
My Life and Experiences Among Our Hostile Indians.
Hartford, Conn.: A. D. Worthington & Co., 1907.
Howard, William Willard. “The Rush to Oklahoma.”
Harper's Weekly,
May 18, 1889.
Jackson, Donald, ed.
Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with Related Documents
, vol. 1. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978.
Jefferson, Thomas.
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson,
vol. 6. Washington, D.C.: Taylor and Maury, 1854.
Chief Joseph. “An Indian's View of Indian Affairs.” North American Review
,
April 1879.
Kip, Leonard.
California Sketches, with Recollections of the Gold Mines.
Albany, N.Y.: E.H. Pease & Co., 1850.
Knapp, Louise Amelia.
The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851â52.
San Francisco: Printed by T. C. Russell, 1922.
Knower, Daniel.
The Adventures of a Forty-niner: An Historic Description of California, with Events and Ideas of San Francisco and Its people in Those Early Days
. Published by the author, 1894.
Leeper, David Rohrer.
The Argonauts of Forty-nine: Some Recollections of the Plains and the Diggings
. South Bend, Ind.: J. B. Stoll & Co., 1894.
Lincoln, Abraham.
Speeches and Writings, 1832â1858
. New York: Library of America, 1989.
Love, Nat.
The Life and Adventures of Nat Love
. Published by the author, Los Angeles, 1907.
Luther Standing Bear.
My People the Sioux
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1928.
Marryat, Frank.
Mountains and Molehills, or Recollections of a Burnt Journal
. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855.
Mayer, Frank H.
The Buffalo Harvest.
Denver: Sage Books, 1958.
Meriwether, David.
My Life in the Mountains and on the Plains.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965.
Megquier, Mary Jane.
Apron Full of Gold: The Letters of Mary Jane Megquier from San Francisco, 1849â1856.
San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1949.
Polk, James K.
The Diary of a President, 1845â1849
. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929.
Preuss, Charles.
Exploring with Frémont
:
The Private Diaries of Charles Preuss
. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958.
Pringle, Catherine Sager. Across the Plains in 1844. Pamphlet, 1860.
Reed, Virginia.
Across the Plains in the Donner Party: A Personal Narrative of the Overland Trip to California
. Published by the author, 1891.
Ruede, Howard.
Sod-house Days: Letters from a Kansas Homesteader, 1877â78
. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1937.
Ryan, William Redmond.
Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California, in 1848â49
. London: W. Shoberl, 1850.
Sanford, Mollie Dorsey.
Mollie: The Journal of Mollie Dorsey Sanford in Nebraska and Colorado Territories
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1959.
Seymour, Silas.
Incidents of a Trip Through the Great Platte Valley
. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1867.
Singleton, Benjamin. Testimony of Benjamin Singleton before the Senate Select Committee Investigating the “Negro Exodus from the Southern States.” Washington, D.C., April 17, 1880.
Siringo, Charles A.
A Texas Cowboy
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1950; reprint of 1886 edition.
Stanley, Henry M.
My Early Travels and Adventures,
vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895.
Summerhayes, Martha.
Vanished Arizona: Recollections of My Army Life.
Salem, MA: The Salem Press, 1911.
Sutter, John.
The Diary of Joann August Sutter
. San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1932.
âââ. “The Discovery of Gold in California.”
Hutchings' California Magazine,
November 1857.
Svendsen, Gro.
Frontier Mother: The Letters of Gro Svendsen
. Translated and edited by Pauline Farseth and Theodore C. Blegen. Northfield, Minn.: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1950.
Taylor, Creed.
Tall Men with Long Rifles. Set Down and Written out by James T. DeShields as told to him by Creed Taylor.
San Antonio: Naylor Co., 1971.
Toponce, Alexander.
Reminiscences of Alexander Toponce: Pioneer, 1839â1923.
Published by Mrs. Katie Toponce, Ogden, Utah, 1923.
Twain, Mark
. Roughing It
. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1871.
Vallejo, Guadalupe. “Ranch and Mission Days in Atla California.”
Century Magazine
, December 1890.
Vallejo, Mariano Guadalupe.
Historical and Personal Memoirs Relating to Alta, California.
Translated by Earl R. Hewitt, 5 Vols. Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley, 1875.
Whitman, Narcissa, and Eliza Spalding.
Where Wagons Could Go
. Edited by Clifford Merrill Drury. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
Wilson, Elijah Nicholas.
Among the Shoshones.
Salt Lake City: Skelton Publishing Co., 1910.
âââ.
The White Indian Boy.
Yonkers, NY: World Book Company, 1926.
Wilson, Luzena Stanley.
Luzena Stanley Wilson, '49er: Memories Recalled Years Later for Her Daughter Correnah Wilson Wright
. Mills College, Calif.: Eucalyptus Press, 1937.
Yellow Wolf.
Yellow Wolf: His Own Story
. Caldwell, Idaho.: Caxton Printers, 1940.