Jessie Benton Fremont: A Woman Who Made History

Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. First Bison Book Printing . Trade Paperback. Fine. 6" x 9. Paprocki, Greg - Cover Illustration and Design. 361 Pages Indexed. A pristine, new book with flawless interior text pages. There are 32 Illustrations mostly photographs and portraits. A favorite of President Andrew Jackson and the daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, Jessie Benton was acquainted with the famous from childhood. When the vivacious belle met John C. Fremont, the handsomest young man who ever walked the streets of Washington, love bloomed. Always passionately devoted to the controversial explorer, soldier, and politician, Jessie bore John five children, maintained a family life, charmed and campaigned on his behalf, and helped him write the popular reports of his western trailblazing. These pages, filled with public figures such as Kit Carson and Abraham Lincoln, present a lively and fearless woman. The author's family knew Jessie Fremont during her last years in Los Angeles, had access to private letters. Introducing this Bison Book edition is Christine Bold, an assistant professor of English at the University of Guelph, and the author of Selling the Wild West: Popular Western Fiction, 1860 to 1960. Contents: The Widow Benton's Settlement, Colonel McDowell's to the Mountain Top, A Washington Childhood, An Elopement, Jessie Fremont Topographical Reporter, Government Orders in a Sewing Basket, All of Which I Saw and Part of Which I Was, Under the Gun of Fremont's Court-Martial, A Forty-Niner via Panama, In Search of Health, Wife of the First Senator from California, A Guest at the Courts of England and France, Our Jessie the Toast of the Nation, Life at Mariposa and Black Point, Civil War Duty Western Department, There Is a Time to Do and a Time to Stand Aside, Pocaho Salon, The Governor's Lady, Los Angeles Retreat, and Chapter's End. Plus Appendix: Personal Recollections of Jessie Benton Fremont, Bibliography, Periodicals and Pamphlets, Newspapers, Fremont Family Papers, Publications of Jessie Benton Fremont , and Birth and Death Dates of the Fremont Family.