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SPLENDID MOVIE COULD BE MADE FROM KIT CARSONGEORGE (REEL TOLD MRS. MAULEY PLAINSMAN WAS GREAT MATERIAL.Producer*, However, Told (reel Material Had Been I'sed In Covered Wagon—Mrs. Hawley Has Many Valuable Anecdotes of’ (arson.When Mrs. Jonathan F. Hawley, a grandnleee of the famous western pathfinder and soldier, Kit Carson, became interested In popu:arlz’rg facts concerning him and correcting misapprehensions about him, on- of the people of note with whom she corres-pened in regard to him was George Creel.Mr. Creel, who has been much in public life, formerly was official censor during President Wilson’s administration.Mrs. Hawley wrote Mr. Creel follow- i ing the publication of his magazine article, “The Incredible Kit Carson,” j which later was reprinted in book form. Her suggestion was that the facts used in this book might be used in the making of a moving picture As the “movie” is the most widely circulated form of popular entertainment and information, Mrs. Hawley felt that such a picture would do much to inform the general public about Kit Carson. Many people, she had found, were laboring under the idea that he was a bandit of the Jesse Janies type, when in fact he had been a remarkable character and the recipient of many high public honorsMr. Creel had the same idea, he informed Mrs. Hawley. He got in touch with movie producers to get their support. He found, however, that they were of the opinion that “The Covered Wagon” had covered much of the same ground. Here he disagreed with them and it is possible that the historical material centering around Kit Carson still may be used in a film.Kit Carson’s first wife was an Indian princess, Mrs. Hawley has learned. She was of the Arapahoe tribe, which was friendly to him because of his settling their troubles with the bloodthirsty Sioux Indians. They had a daughter, Adelaide.When the child was two weeks old, Mrs. Hawley learned, Kit Carson became ill. On learning this the child’s mother went immediately on horseback to be with Kit Carson, to whom •' he was intensely devoted, and the illness as a result of a trip caused her death.j The child was reared in the family | of Kit (’arson’s brother, Sarshall Cartel in Fayette, Mo. His daughter, Mrs. Anne Amick now in her nineties, who grew up in the household with the child, wrote Mrs. Hawley that she was always wild and impatient of restraint, a typical Indian without a trace of her father’s gentle voice anti iiianm- r. Although she was so trying anti harum-scarum that she needed beatings every day, she never gut them. Her father was invariably gentle, loving and kind. Later she was placed in a convent in St. Louis to lie educated. As a girl in her teens she ran away to get married and lived only a few years.Some years later Kit Carson married a Spanish lady, a sister-in-law of Governor Bent of Colorado.Kit Carson began his frontier life by going with his brothers on the expeditions that went regularly from this part of the country to towns and cities of the southwest. He was apprenticed to a saddler but declared when he finished that the only use he had or a saddle was a mount. He appeared on muleback ready to start with the caravan.“What have you to say for yourself?” Mrs. Hawley says the commander cf lie expedition asked.“I can shoot straight.” he said, and proved it every day of his life.But Kit Carson, unlike many white men, did not shoot Indians with little .feeling as if they were wild game. On the contary he never shot except in self-defense of in defense of a friend. In his whole career he was only wounded once by an indian. That was when his friend Mark land was about to be struck down by a tomahawk, fn turning to aim i\* the heart of the savage Kit Carson’s left shoulder was broken by a rifle sho*.He soon mastered the Indian’s art of fghting. which is not done in the open, but from ambush and by surprise. But the Indians became Ins friends because of his fair treatment O) them. In later years he represent'd them in Washington. He frequently accompanied chiefs as at, interpreter and the last public act of his life was a journey to Washington with two Ute Chiefs. He was among the first to ask congress to give an allotment of land to the Indians and to let them work out their own salvation.He saw the folly and injustice of the nation’s treatment of them thirtyyears before Helen Hunt Jackson wrote “Romona.”Kit Carson was outstanding as a trailmaker, pathfinder, guide, hunter, and protector of iLaceful Indians’. Much of his life was spent in doing commissions for the government.While placing his little daughter in a St. Louis convent, he met John Fremont, topographical engineer, who needed a guide to accompany hhim on 1 tn expedition of discovery for the government. The two were mutually attracted and made J agreement. May 22, 1S42, they embarked from i Chouteau’s Landing. St. Louis, for the journey up the Missouri river to Kansas City. Carson led the expedition ip'to Fremont’s Pass, in the heart of the rockies, 13,570 feet above the ;ulf of Mexico.A second exploration trip covered Ttab, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon.Kit Carson parted from Fremont vith the promise that he, Carson,! vould accompany Fremont if he want-' *d him for a third expedition. Kit j Mar son settled on a ranch near Taos,. \\ M., stocked it and was living peaee-ully there when the call came for him! j jlt;*in Fremont.At a great financial sacrifice Caron arranged to go, leaving his family! n care of Governor Bent. While rossing the desert the new expedition earned of the war between the UnitediStates and Mexico. ,Carson was sent with fifteen men to make a trip of several thousand miles to California. On the way they met General Kearney’s forces. Carson was again retained in his role of guide. With one man. Lt. Beale, he crawled on all fours for two days and nights, then went barefoot over the thorny desert through the Mexican lines to get aid for General Kearney”s troops i rom San Diego. Carson nearly lost his feet from infection.Mrs. Hawley tells an incident to ill-istrate Kit Carson’s loyal Americanism. In a travern meeting with a fore-gner one even'ng Carson had to listen to the foreigner’s conversation in which he made slighting remarksabout Americans, among other things referring to them as “yellow.”With a swift gesture, Mrs. Hawley stys, Kit Carson made a gesture indicating the' question would have to be settled with guns. On horseback, the two men made ready to settle the matter in a duel. But as the foreigner raised his firearm to shoot, Kit Carson, too quick for him. pierced the 1 wrist that handled the foreigner’s | we apon with a bullet from his own I pistol. jEven more chagrined by his clumsL 1ness than by the pa*n of tlie wound, fall down a precipice on a mule. But the foreigner bowed to the superiority he started back home and was able j of the American an i no one was a to ho with his wife at her death. Two ; more loyal or attentive nurse to him weeks later, May 23, 1863, he died at than Kit Carson. I Fort Lyons Colo.Kit Carson also served in the Union! army as colonel of the first regiment of New Mexico infantry and afterward was created brigadier general of volunteers.| On one of his trips east to Washington, when he passed through Miss-.ouri, Mrs. Hawley has learned, people I were surprised that he did not pay | the family of Sarshall Carson, his brother at Fayette, Mo., a visit. The reason, Mrs. Hawley has been informed, was that while Kit Carson had been active as a Union man, all the j rest of the family (Kit the sixth of ten children) were Confederates.Sahshall Carson, Mrs. Anne Amick’s father, had been shot down in his own door by Unionists. Mrs. Amick’s grand mother collapsed when she heard the shot and could never thereafter endure the s'ght of a Union uniform.At the close of the war he was made Indian reservation agent. The Indians worshipped him and the only ones he ever shot were shot to save white men’s lives. jThere are twenty-nine brass tacks in his rifle in the Denver museum, and one large for a chief. This was the custom on recording the number of Indians shot.In spite of Mrs. Hawley’s introductions she was not permitted to touch any of the numerous articles and personal effects of Kit Carson in the Denver museum. These are jealously guarded.Kit Carson’s one private expedition was to drive a flock of l,0r»0 sheep from Taos, N. M., to the Pacific. Although much of his time was spent in public life, he died very well off for that time, leaving an estate of ($13,000. * ;There was a controversy over his burial place, Trinidad and Denver competing for the honor. In accordance with his request, however, he was buried at Taos, X. M.. now the home of a famous art colony. IBesides Mrs. Hawley and her sister,Miss Katherine Everhart of Tulsa, there are two living cousins of theirs who are related to Kit Carson. They are Rube Oglesby of Warrensburg,! prominent in Missouri politics, and his sister, Mrs. Pleasant Avery of Warrensburg. Their mother, Mrs. Charles Oglesby, died a year ago this July. !Miss Everhart possesses a large oil painting of Kit Carson, which she prizes very highly.On his last trip to Washington Kit Carson suffered terribly from a bad
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Chillicothe Daily Tribune
Chillicothe, Missouri, US
Thu, Sep 08, 1927
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USA 14 May 2025
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