Jedediah Smith
At a glance:
- Series: Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century
- Categories: Discovery, Exploration
- Subcategories: Explorers, Frontier, Pioneers
- Curriculum: American History 1816-1855, American Early National History (1789-1815)
Article abstract: The most adventurous of the nineteenth century mountain men, Smith charted trails through the Rockies that opened the American West to settlement by the pioneers who followed the fur traders.
Early Life
Jedediah Strong Smith, possibly the greatest of the American mountain men, was born January 6, 1799, in New York State. Like many other American families, the Smiths moved a number of times as the frontier pushed farther west.
Smith’s family appears to have been thoroughly middle class and respectable. Smith received a good...
[The entire page is 2279 words long]
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