Thomas Fitzpatrick (1799 – February 7, 1854) was an

Irish-American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

fur trader, Indian agent, and mountain man. He trapped for the

Rocky Mountain Fur Company The enterprise that eventually came to be known as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company was established in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1822 by William Henry Ashley and Andrew Henry. Among the original employees, known as "Ashley's Hundred," were Jedediah ...

and the

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States. During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British ...

. He was among the first white men to discover South Pass,

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

. In 1831, he found and took-in a lost Arapaho boy,

Friday Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth d ...

, who he had schooled in St. Louis,

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

; Friday became a noted interpreter and peacemaker and leader of a band of Northern Arapaho. Fitzpatrick was a government guide and also led a wagon train of pioneers to Oregon. He helped negotiate the

Fort Laramie treaty of 1851 The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17, 1851 between United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations. Also known as Horse Cree ...

. In the winter of 1853–54, Fitzpatrick went to Washington, D.C., to see after treaties that needed to be approved, but while there he contracted pneumonia and died on February 7, 1854. He was known as "Broken Hand" after his left hand had been crippled in a firearms accident.

Early life

Thomas Fitzpatrick was born in

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; gle, Contae an Chabháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of the Border Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the historic Gaelic territory of East Breffny (''Bréifn ...

, Ireland in 1799 to Mary Kieran and Mr. Fitzpatrick. They were a moderately wealthy Catholic family with three boys and four girls. Fitzpatrick received a good education and he left home before the age of 17. He became a sailor and left a ship at

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. From there, he traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis,

by the winter of 1822–1823.

Trapper

Alfred Jacob Miller, ''Crossing the Divide'', 1858–1860, Walters Art Museum of South Pass (Wyoming) along the Continental Divide of the Americas, Continental Divide Andrew Henry and William Henry Ashley announced that they were searching for fur trappers for their company, the

by placing an ad in the ''

Missouri Republican The ''Missouri Republican'' was a newspaper founded in 1808 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its predecessor was the ''Morning Gazette''. It later changed its name to ''St. Louis Republic''. After supporting the Whig Party, the paper bec ...

'' in 1822: An experienced fur trapper and trader, Andrew Henry had built Fort Henry a trading post at

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellow ...

in 1822. Fitzpatrick went to work for the fur traders, joining the likes of

Jim Bridger James Felix "Jim" Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old ...

Jedediah Smith Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western United States, an ...

Louis Vasquez Pierre Louis Vasquez also known as Luis Vázquez (October 3, 1798 – September 5, 1868) was a mountain man and trader. He was a contemporary of many famous European-American explorers of the early west and would come to know many of them, in ...

Étienne Provost Étienne Provost (1785 – 3 July 1850) was a Canadian fur trader whose trapping and trading activities in the American southwest preceded Mexican independence. He was also known as Proveau and Provot (and the pronunciation was "Pra-vo"). Leadi ...

, and William Lewis Sublette. He survived an attack on the Rocky Mountain Fur Company during the Arikara War of 1823. The Arikara were successful in preventing the trappers from traveling the Missouri River. Needing another route, Fitzpatrick and Jedediah Smith led 15 men to find an overland route over the Rocky Mountains. He re-discovered South Pass,

in 1824; John Jacob Astor's fur trading expedition of 1811–1812 (led by Robert Stuart) were the first known white party through the South Pass. It became a route through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. From South Pass, their journey took them into the Green River basin, which was a good source of beaver. Fitzpatrick made a return trip with a large stock of pelts. Fitzpatrick led two horse trains with goods and supplies over South Pass to trade for furs in the Green River area and he managed placement of bands of trappers. The first

Rocky Mountain Rendezvous The Rocky Mountain Rendezvous was an annual rendezvous, held between 1825 to 1840 at various locations, organized by a fur trading company at which trappers and mountain men sold their furs and hides and replenished their supplies. The fur compan ...

was held on the frontier, which provided entertainment and a means for trappers to trade furs for supplies without traveling to a trading post. In 1830, he became a senior partner of the

with Jim Bridger and others. In 1832, Fitzpatrck rode ahead of the supply train and was chased by a Gros Ventre tribe through the wilderness. The "harrowing" experience is said to have caused him to prematurely gray. He later led a group of allied Native Americans and trappers against the Gros Ventre in the

Battle of Pierre's Hole Pierre's Hole is a shallow valley in the western United States in eastern Idaho, just west of the Teton Range in Wyoming. At an elevation over above sea level, it collects the headwaters of the Teton River, and was a strategic center of th ...

. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company dissolved in 1834 and he was a partner in two fur trading organizations. The

bought one of the firms and Fitzpatrick worked for them as a band leader.

Father to an Arapaho boy

In 1831, he found an Arapaho boy who had been separated from his band that had camped with the Atsina ( Gros Ventre) along the Cimmaron River in present-day southeastern Colorado. A fight had broken out that led to the Arapaho chief being stabbed, and the Atsina chief was killed in retaliation. He found the boy on a Friday, which was the nexus of his name from that point forward. Fitzpatrick took

in and enrolled him in a in school St. Louis, Missouri that he attended for two years. Fitzpatrick brought Friday along on his trapping journeys in the western frontier. In 1838, Fitzpatrick and Friday met up with a band of Arapaho people. When a woman recognized Friday as her son, Friday returned to his life with the Arapaho. He remained friends with Fitzpatrick until his death in 1854.

Guide

When the fur trade was no longer viable, he became a guide. He shepherded the first two emigrant wagon trains to

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, including the Whitman- Spalding Party (1836) and the Bartleson-Bidwell Party (1841). He was the official guide to

John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...

on his 1843 to 1845 expedition. He guided Col.

Stephen W. Kearny Stephen Watts Kearny (sometimes spelled Kearney) ( ) (August 30, 1794October 31, 1848) was one of the foremost antebellum frontier officers of the United States Army. He is remembered for his significant contributions in the Mexican–American Wa ...

and his

Dragoons Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

along the westward trails in 1845 to impress the Native Americans with their

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

s and swords.

Indian Agent

In 1846, he became an Indian Agent of the Upper Platte and Arkansas River Valleys (a sizeable portion of present-day Colorado), and was well-respected by Native Americans and white settlers. He negotiated with

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

, and Lakota Sioux of the Central Plains. Fitzpatrick was a negotiator for the

, at the largest council ever assembled of Native Americans of the Plains. He was a negotiator for the Treaty of Fort Atkinson in July 1853 with the

Plains Apache The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan group who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma and Northern Texas ...

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

, and

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in ...

Marriage

In November 1849, Fitzpatrick formerly married Margaret Poisal, the daughter of a French-Canadian trapper John Poisal and Snake Woman an Arapaho woman. She was the niece of

Chief Land Hand ( Chief Niwot). Their son, Andrew Jackson Fitzpatrick, was born in 1850. Virginia Tomasine Fitzpatrick was born in 1854, after her father's death. Poisal served as an important translator for the Arapaho peoples and often worked alongside Fitzpatrick at important meetings. After his death, Poisal served as the official interpreter for the Arapaho during the Little Arkansas Treaty Council in 1865.

Death and legacy

In the winter of 1853–54, Fitzpatrick went to Washington, D.C., to finalize the Treaty of Fort Atkinson, but while there contracted pneumonia and died on February 7, 1854. He was buried in the

Congressional Cemetery The Congressional Cemetery, officially Washington Parish Burial Ground, is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American "cemetery of national m ...

there. In 2004, he was inducted into the

Hall of Great Westerners The Hall of Great Westerners was established by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1958. Located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., the Hall was created to celebrate the contributions of more than 200 men and women of the American ...

of the

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of Am ...

. Fitzpatrick appears to have been confused or conflated with John S. Fitzgerald, who, according to the ''Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography'', was actually the one who left Glass behind.

Popular culture

In the 1966 episode "Hugh Glass Meets the Bear" of the syndicated

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

, ''

Death Valley Days ''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program ...

'', the actor Morgan Woodward was cast as Fitzpatrick. John Alderson played

Hugh Glass Hugh Glass ( 1783 – 1833) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, trader, hunter and explorer. He is best known for his story of survival and forgiveness after being left for dead by companions when he was mauled by a grizzly bear. No reco ...

, who after being mauled by a

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the No ...

and abandoned by Fitzpatrick crawled two hundred miles to civilization. Victor French was cast as Louis Baptiste, with

Tris Coffin Tristram Chockley Coffin (August 13, 1909 – March 26, 1990) was a film and television actor from the latter 1930s through the 1970s, usually in westerns or other B-movie action- adventure productions. Early years Coffin's mother was act ...

Major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

Andrew Henry.

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzpatrick, Thomas 1799 births 1854 deaths American fur traders Mountain men