THE WALKER EXPEDITION

 

(originally transcribed by Elsa Spear Byron,  her collection located in the Wyoming Room, Sheridan County Library , Sheridan WY)

Elsa Spear Byron was a world renown photographer, historian author of the early west and a family friend.

(transcribed from her collection by Jo Ann Boyd Scott)

 

Elsa Spear Bryon explains her collection of names. “The names of the thirty-five or forty men of the Walker Expedition, that is as many as we have, have been extremely difficult to procure. There seems to be no extant list of these men in full and those names appearing here have been gleaned  from various books, manuscripts, newspaper articles and Journal’s dealing with the fur trade of the period. There is some doubt as to whether or not a few of them  were really with the Walker Expedition.”

In addition she states: “Bancroft, in his history of California, definitely lists 14 of whom he is not certain of four. William Craig, in his collections of a Pioneer, names nine, including Joe Walker and himself.”

 

 My pioneer California  list for 1832 contains forty-five names, a number that would be increased to eighty by the addition of transient visitors.  Seven or eight, however, are doubtful names so far as the exact date of arrival is concerned. Among  the best known: Alexander, Carson, Black, Chard, Dye, Larkin, Sparks, Spear, West, and Williams. Carson and Dye were the only survivors in 1880, and the former still lived, I think, in 1884. Larken was destined to be the prominent of all, and with him on the NEWCASTLE came Mrs. Rachel Holmes from Boston, whom Larking married the next year, the first American woman who came to live in California.

 

Pioneers of 1832: Cyrus Alexander, Allen ?, Alexis Bachelot, Robt. S. Barker, James Black, Wm Blake ?, C.T. Briggs ?, Lemuel Carpenter, Moses Carson, Wm. G. Chard, James Craig ?, Benj. Day, Wm Day, Denton, Ferd Deppe, Wm Dickey, Joseph Dixon, Sant,  Duckworth, (born in Cal.), Job F. Dye, Hazel Fuller, Jose Garner, (born in Cal.), Geo. GayThos. Grant, Chas. Hall, ArchAJohnson?, Michel Laframboise? , Thos.O. Lark, J.O.I. Macondray, John D. Meter, Joseph Paulding, Dan Rice, Wm. B. Richardson, patrick Shorts, Dan Sill, Phil. O. Slad, Isaac J. Sparks, Nathan Spear, John Thompson, Ambrose Tomlinson, Phil J. Walter, John Ward?, Wm Ware?, Markwest, Geo.Williams, and Isaac Williams. (See Pioneer Register .

 

 I append the names of forty-seven pioneers who came in 1833, though in a few cases the year of arrival is not quite certain. There are some thirty-five more who came but did not stay or return. The leading names according to subsequent prominence of citizens are  Forster, Graham, Johnson, Leese, Nidever, and Walker. Four of all the list, Forster, Leese, Nidever, and Meek were living in 1880; Meek and Lees I think also in 1884.