Hero of the Week 119

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This week's hero is...

Moses Harris

Moses Harris is believed to have come from either the states of South Carolina or Kentucky. Much of his early life is undocumented. Some believe that he was a former slave who escaped to freedom. By the 1820s he was working as a trapper for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Through his experience as a trapper, Moses Harris eventually became a mountain man. Little did he know that his life and experiences would help transform the future of the United States of America.

In 1824, Harris was with a group of 26 men who ventured west across the American Continent into what was called, "the Great Divide". Their intention was to scout and plot outposts across the frontier that led to the territory of California. These outposts would be used to hunt game and trade with Native Americans. The next year, Harris began acting as a guide for immigrants that were beginning the long journey to California. Ten years later, he and other mountain men constructed Fort Laramie in the Wyoming territory, present-day Torrington, Wyoming. 

The construction of this fortification would be the beginning of a significant change in American history. In 1839, large groups of American citizens began to immigrate across the Great Divide. Their destinations were, the California and Oregon territories. Henceforth, this route would be forever known as, the "Oregon Trail".

Like many other mountain men, Moses Harris acted as a guide for many of these immigrants. He began in 1836, when he guided the Whitman-Spaulding party to Oregon. By 1841, he had led thousands of immigrants through the territories of Idaho and Nevada to California and Oregon. Three years later, Harris guided more than 500 people from Missouri all the way to Oregon. After a four month journey, this group settled in the Willamette Valley. Harris's knowledge of the trail is widely credited with enabling the wagon trains to arrive without serious incident.

Moses Harris's defining moment came in the year 1845. That year, a wagon train belonging to the Meeks Party had become lost while attempting to cross the high desert. Harris was the only mountain man that was brave enough to venture into the desert to rescue the survivors. He found them and successfully guided them out of the desert and to The Dalles, Oregon. 

Harris continued to guide wagon trains along the Oregon Trail for the rest of his life. He tragically died on May 5, in Independence, Missouri, during the cholera pandemic of 1849. By then, he had successfully guided thousands of immigrants to California and Oregon. Today, his legacy has mostly been forgotten by the American public. Like almost every mountain man who worked on the Oregon Trail, he did so much and received very little in return. Never the less, his work ultimately helped shape the future of the United States. As a direct result, thousands of American settlers were able to make new lives on the West coast of America. His story is definitely one that deserves to be remembered.

MosesHarris_1822.pdf

http://gregnokes.com/2017/04/03/black-harris-northwest-mountain-man-of-mystery/

http://www.mman.us/harrismoses.htm

https://historicoregoncity.org/2019/04/02/black-pioneers-and-settlers/

Brown, Daniel James (2009). The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride, William Morrow, New York.