Joins Ashley's Company
Further information: Mountain manWhile in the Green Township the Smith family was running low on income. In 1821, Jedediah began writing his journal and traveled to Illinois in an effort to find employment. By 1822 Jedediah traveled to St. Louis and responded to an advertisement in the Missouri Gazette placed by Gen. William H. Ashley. Gen. Ashley and Maj. Andrew Henry were partner owners of the American Fur Company. According to the ad, Gen. Ashley was looking for "Enterprising Young Men" to explore the Missouri River and engage in the fur trade business in the Rocky Mountains. Jedediah, now a 6 foot tall, blue eyed 23 year old with a commanding presence, impressed Gen. Ashley to hire him. Ashley initially led the expedition and Jedediah got his first glimpse of the frontier West coming in contact with Sioux and Arikaras tribes. Jedediah finally reached Fort Arikaras, under the control of Major Andrew Henry at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on the Yellowstone River. On his first expedition up the Missouri Jedediah learned to trap beaver and hunt buffalo.
Read more about this topic: Jedediah Smith
Famous quotes containing the words joins and/or company:
“If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from others lands, but a continent that joins to them.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“The Bermudas are said to have been discovered by a Spanish ship of that name which was wrecked on them.... Yet at the very first planting of them with some sixty persons, in 1612, the first governor, the same year, “built and laid the foundation of eight or nine forts.” To be ready, one would say, to entertain the first ship’s company that should be next shipwrecked on to them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)