John Henry Weber
Encyclopedia
John Henry Weber was an American fur trader and explorer. Weber was active in the early years of the fur trade, exploring territory in the Rocky Mountains and areas in the current state of Utah
.
Weber was born in the German speaking community of Altona
, which was in Danish
territory at that time; the community is today part of Germany
. Weber immigrated to the United States where he was hired by the U.S. army ordinance department to keep records at government owned lead
mines at Sainte Genevieve, Missouri. He became acquainted with William Henry Ashley
and Andrew Henry
who conducted the beaver trade in the drainage of the Upper Missouri River
. Weber joined a Rocky Mountain Fur Company
expedition which departed St. Louis, Missouri
in the spring of 1822. Other trappers in this group included: Jim Bridger
, David Jackson, Jedediah Smith
, Thomas Fitzpatrick
, Hugh Glass
, James Clyman, Daniel T. Potts, and the Sublette brothers, Milton
and William
. This was the first party of American trappers to cross the continental divide
.
Upon reaching the mouth of the Yellowstone River
, the company divided into two independent brigades, with Weber serving in a leadership position. During the summer of 1824, Weber's brigade crossed South Pass and the Green River Valley and descended into the Bear River region in time for a fall hunt. As winter approached, the company journeyed to Bear Lake
, then to the Bear River's northern bend and finally south into what is today Utah’s Cache Valley
. The brigade spent the winter of 1824-25 on Cub Creek near present-day Cove, Utah
. While in Cache Valley, the group discussed the possible course and ultimate outlet of the Bear River. According to his own account, the young Bridger was selected to settle the question by floating down the river. For many years Bridger was credited for the discovery of the Great Salt Lake
. More recent evidence suggests that Canadian-American Etienne Provost
and his trapping party, working out of Taos
in Mexican territory, visited the southern edge of the inland sea earlier in the same winter.
The following spring Weber's brigade traveled throughout extreme southeastern Idaho and northern Utah. A portion of the brigade, under the leadership of Johnson Gardner, confronted Peter Skene Ogden
, the leader of Hudson's Bay Company
's Snake Country Expedition near present-day Mountain Green, Utah
. Gardner insisted that they were in United States territory. Ogden countered that the area in contention was under joint occupation. During the incident, Gardner was able to lure a number of men, many of them Canadian Iroquois
, away from their British employer by offering higher prices for their furs. The reduction in force led Ogden to retrace his steps back to HBC's "Flathead House" near Flathead Lake
in modern Montana. That summer, Weber and his brigade were at the first rendezvous held in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, near present McKinnon, just north of the Utah border.
Weber's remaining mountain years are less well documented; however, he spent the winter of 1825-26 in the Salt Lake Valley after Ashley's men were forced by severe winter weather to move their winter quarters from Cache Valley. It appears that Utah’s Weber River
was christened during this winter camp. This place-name gave rise to the modern names of Utah’s Weber Canyon
, Weber County
and Weber State University
.
Weber attended the rendezvous of 1826 in Cache Valley and left the fur trade, and the west, shortly thereafter. However, some accounts confuse John Henry Weber with a trapper named John Weber who was killed by Indians in the winter of 1828-29. Weber spent the remainder of his life in the American Midwest, first returning to Sainte Genevieve and his former position as recorder with the mines. By 1833 Weber was assistant superintendent of government mines in Galena, Illinois
, and served briefly as superintendent until his retirement in 1840. Weber moved to Bellevue, Iowa
where he died in 1859.
' map of the fur trade era in which he gives the name of the Weber River as "Webber's Fork." However, references by other fur trappers, such as Osborne Russell and Daniel Potts, give credence to the long vowel sound. The long vowel pronunciation is used in all Utah place names.
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
Weber was born in the German speaking community of Altona
Altona, Hamburg
Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...
, which was in Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
territory at that time; the community is today part of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Weber immigrated to the United States where he was hired by the U.S. army ordinance department to keep records at government owned lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
mines at Sainte Genevieve, Missouri. He became acquainted with William Henry Ashley
William Henry Ashley
William Henry Ashley was a pioneering fur trader, entrepreneur, and politician. Though a native of Virginia, Ashley had already moved to St. Genevieve in what was then called Louisiana, when it was purchased by the United States from France in 1803...
and Andrew Henry
Andrew Henry (fur trader)
Major Andrew Henry was an American fur trader who, with William H. Ashley started the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1822...
who conducted the beaver trade in the drainage of the Upper Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
. Weber joined a Rocky Mountain Fur Company
Rocky Mountain Fur Company
The Rocky Mountain Fur Company, sometimes called Ashley's Hundred, was organized in St. Louis, Missouri in 1823 by General William H. Ashley and Major Andrew Henry . They posted advertisements in St. Louis newspapers seeking "One Hundred enterprising young men . ....
expedition which departed St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
in the spring of 1822. Other trappers in this group included: Jim Bridger
Jim Bridger
James Felix "Jim" Bridger was among the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820-1850, as well as mediating between native tribes and encroaching whites...
, David Jackson, Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Strong Smith was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, cartographer, cattleman, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the 19th century...
, Thomas Fitzpatrick
Thomas Fitzpatrick (trapper)
Thomas Fitzpatrick, known as "Broken Hand", was a trapper and a trailblazer who became the head of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. With Jedediah Smith, he led a trapper band that discovered South Pass, Wyoming....
, Hugh Glass
Hugh Glass
Hugh Glass was an American fur trapper and frontiersman noted for his exploits in the American West during the first third of the 19th century....
, James Clyman, Daniel T. Potts, and the Sublette brothers, Milton
Milton Sublette
Milton Green Sublette was an American fur trader, explorer and mountain man. He was the second of four Sublette brothers prominent in the western fur trade; William, Andrew, and Solomon...
and William
William Sublette
William Lewis Sublette Born near Stamford, Lincoln County, Kentucky on September 21, 1798. Died on July 23, 1845 in Pittsburg. W.L. Sublette was a fur trapper, pioneer and mountain man, who with his brothers after 1823 became an agent of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company exploiting the riches of the...
. This was the first party of American trappers to cross the continental divide
Continental divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea...
.
Upon reaching the mouth of the Yellowstone River
Yellowstone River
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National...
, the company divided into two independent brigades, with Weber serving in a leadership position. During the summer of 1824, Weber's brigade crossed South Pass and the Green River Valley and descended into the Bear River region in time for a fall hunt. As winter approached, the company journeyed to Bear Lake
Bear Lake (Idaho-Utah)
Bear Lake is a natural freshwater lake on the Utah-Idaho border in the Western United States. It is the second largest natural freshwater lake in Utah and has been called the "Caribbean of the Rockies" for its unique turquoise-blue color, the result of suspended limestone deposits in the water...
, then to the Bear River's northern bend and finally south into what is today Utah’s Cache Valley
Cache Valley
The Cache Valley is an agricultural valley of northern Utah and southeast Idaho that includes the Logan metropolitan area. The valley was used by 19th century mountain men and was the site of the 1863 Bear River Massacre.-History:...
. The brigade spent the winter of 1824-25 on Cub Creek near present-day Cove, Utah
Cove, Utah
Cove is a census-designated place in Cache County, Utah, United States. The population was 460 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Logan, Utah-Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Cove is located at ....
. While in Cache Valley, the group discussed the possible course and ultimate outlet of the Bear River. According to his own account, the young Bridger was selected to settle the question by floating down the river. For many years Bridger was credited for the discovery of the Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around , but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its...
. More recent evidence suggests that Canadian-American Etienne Provost
Étienne Provost
Étienne Provost was a French Canadian fur trader whose trapping and trading activities in the American southwest preceded Mexican independence...
and his trapping party, working out of Taos
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
in Mexican territory, visited the southern edge of the inland sea earlier in the same winter.
The following spring Weber's brigade traveled throughout extreme southeastern Idaho and northern Utah. A portion of the brigade, under the leadership of Johnson Gardner, confronted Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden , was a fur trader and a Canadian explorer of what is now British Columbia and the American West...
, the leader of Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
's Snake Country Expedition near present-day Mountain Green, Utah
Mountain Green, Utah
Mountain Green is a census-designated place in Morgan County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,309 at the 2010 census. Located up the Weber River from Ogden, Mountain Green is the world headquarters of the Browning Arms Company.-Geography:...
. Gardner insisted that they were in United States territory. Ogden countered that the area in contention was under joint occupation. During the incident, Gardner was able to lure a number of men, many of them Canadian Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, away from their British employer by offering higher prices for their furs. The reduction in force led Ogden to retrace his steps back to HBC's "Flathead House" near Flathead Lake
Flathead Lake
Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in the western part of the contiguous United States. With a surface area of between and , it is slightly larger than Lake Tahoe. The lake is a remnant of the ancient inland sea, Lake Missoula of the era of the last interglacial. Flathead Lake...
in modern Montana. That summer, Weber and his brigade were at the first rendezvous held in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, near present McKinnon, just north of the Utah border.
Weber's remaining mountain years are less well documented; however, he spent the winter of 1825-26 in the Salt Lake Valley after Ashley's men were forced by severe winter weather to move their winter quarters from Cache Valley. It appears that Utah’s Weber River
Weber River
The Weber River is a c. long river of northern Utah, USA. It begins in the northwest of the Uinta Mountains and empties into the Great Salt Lake. The Weber River was named for American fur trapper John Henry Weber.-Weber River:...
was christened during this winter camp. This place-name gave rise to the modern names of Utah’s Weber Canyon
Weber Canyon
Weber Canyon is a canyon in the Wasatch Range near Ogden, Utah, through which the Weber River flows west toward the Great Salt Lake. It is fed by 13 tributary creeks and is 40 miles long.- History :...
, Weber County
Weber County, Utah
Weber County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah, occupying a stretch of the Wasatch Front, part of the eastern shores of Great Salt Lake, and much of the rugged Wasatch Mountains. As of the 2000 census, the population was 196,533, an increase of 24.1% over its population in 1990. By...
and Weber State University
Weber State University
Weber State University is a public university located in the city of Ogden in Weber County, Utah, USA. It was founded in 1889 and is a coeducational, publicly supported university offering professional, liberal arts and technical certificates, as well as associate, bachelor's and master's degrees...
.
Weber attended the rendezvous of 1826 in Cache Valley and left the fur trade, and the west, shortly thereafter. However, some accounts confuse John Henry Weber with a trapper named John Weber who was killed by Indians in the winter of 1828-29. Weber spent the remainder of his life in the American Midwest, first returning to Sainte Genevieve and his former position as recorder with the mines. By 1833 Weber was assistant superintendent of government mines in Galena, Illinois
Galena, Illinois
Galena is the county seat of, and largest city in, Jo Daviess County, Illinois in the United States, with a population of 3,429 in 2010. The city is a popular tourist destination known for its history, historical architecture, and ski and golf resorts. Galena was the residence of Ulysses S...
, and served briefly as superintendent until his retirement in 1840. Weber moved to Bellevue, Iowa
Bellevue, Iowa
Bellevue is a city in Jackson County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,350 at the 2000 census. The city lies along the Mississippi River , next to Bellevue State Park....
where he died in 1859.
Pronunciation
The proper pronunciation of Weber's surname, Weeber or Webber, has been debated. In the American East and Midwest, where Weber spent most of his life, the name is pronounced as Webber. This is substantiated by Warren Angus FerrisWarren Angus Ferris
Warren Angus Ferris was a trapper and fur trader in the Rocky Mountains during the early 1830s. In 1834, Ferris acted as a clerk for the American Fur Company in a journey to the mountains of western Wyoming. Out of curiosity, Ferris found Indian guides and made a side journey into what is today...
' map of the fur trade era in which he gives the name of the Weber River as "Webber's Fork." However, references by other fur trappers, such as Osborne Russell and Daniel Potts, give credence to the long vowel sound. The long vowel pronunciation is used in all Utah place names.