Complicated the relationship between the newcomers, indians and how they created what hyde called blended families. The kansas city hub library event. This hourlong so my plan is to talk about wrote this book and how i went about doing it. Then im going tell you three three families to kind of illustrate my larger point and that will be the long part with the pretty pictures. Then i will talk about what im and why i think all of this matters. Ive been an historian of the American West my whole life. I was born in st. Louis. Reno, nevada and i tv hooked in fourth grade all the cannibals, all of that appealing. I studied the history of the American West in new england and in colorado for two decades. About like i know a lot what makers westerners tick. Were protective because of our landscaping because it is isolated and challenging in some ways. Here is a standard map that we these kinds of things. It is a Louisiana Purchase map. What we talk about with students and it leaves us with the idea that we simply purchase the west and we settled it. It was very simple. Different from other ofions because it plays this a mythical place. People could remake themselves. The classic image of daniel boone. Time right there. The east is where the sunlight west is scary part with broken trees. There. See the challenge o ofl boone is this sort westerner. Fromis a familiar image 19th anderson. What is missing here . Beings, et cetera. This is the west as a blank slate waiting for the action of european settlers to fill it in geography and those types of thing. Is going on and we need a better story to fill up emphasize the to regions distinctive history. When the university asked me to theirn a volume of comprehensive section of the midwest. Reluctantly. This is a sixvolume series and this was the second volume. A funny story. By the time they asked me to do it, they filled up the other slots and it happened to be with western historians but they were all men. A female historian 18001860. Out think about that for a minute, trade, mexican war, gold rush. Pretty much everything happened in that period. That really did scare a lot of people off and it was kind of male kinds of topics. Historian century even i was taken aback by this. To families save medicine. So as a structure and by a different story about very compelling people. Trackingarted families, i found this was people, not this empty west that lives over here. A couple ofwith sort of mysterious population facts. So in the 1830s, native people could havenow kansas numbered as the 1830s, the most powerful man in kansas or colorado were either native men or white men married to native women. By the 1930s, theres a change again. Indians were not permitted to vote. Notans and whites could marry each other. In 1830s in california, angloamericans were the foreigners and they had to work with mexico and california to do business. This kind of marriage was rare and sometimes illegal. In mexican california, it turned to the foreigners. This huge shift required some explaining. The crosshatch part, the part that looks great, this is indian land. This just gives you an idea of the amount of land that actually has to be seated or taken or one by good old americans to turn what is Indian Country and maybe a little bit of english and russian and french into what becomes the United States. This is quite a bit raw checked to make the United States quite a bit project to make the United States. I will tell you three stories that i think help explain this change, and they really do give us a view of a different kind of west. This is a map that was made in 1833. This map has some familiar borders, but there are some odd innings about it. There is something missing here, kind of like space here. Kind of blank space here. This is where i live in colorado, so it is called hostile ground. [laughter] we see all these native nations named on this map because that is what matters to an army officer in 1833, so again, it makes a point about it. Its very important for us to know that this large swath of land did not yet you want to the United States through most of the first half of the 19th century. This map gives you a sense again of the sort of diplomatic messiness of all of this. This white area is nominally new spain. This area could be british claims. Theres very little that is very clearly belonging to the United States. For People Living here, it is not Crystal Clear this was going to become the United States in the first half of the 19th century. Again, i think that is important to remember. We have to remember that the real significance of new spain and also the power of these native nations. In this shifting, unstable place, we have to look at the way people make families and do business in a region where nobody really knows who can win, and families help keep the story on a much more intimate scale. Native people, women, and children are essential to this story. This is one of my favorite images. Here we have the white trapper guy, and im guessing this is his spouse. She could be his wife. We dont know exactly. She is looking very concerned with all these children about to come into the water, so she is not having a very relaxing commute. This is what the American West looks like in the early 19th century. These people native, euroamerican, california, new mexican, etc. Were all part of this world that was just laid by the first trade. The first trade is the biggest business in the early 19thcentury u. S. If i trace these connections between all of these people by mapping their names, seeing how they traversed the continent, the analogy becomes ready obvious. There is a web. These three stories about these western parents and children really aaron straight illustrate how this webbuilding works. To be fair to this, they end a little tragically. Kind of suicide and murder, just so you are prepared. But here are our families. We have margaret and Benjamin Davis wilson and ramona, and i will explain the connections later. They are from st. Louis, santa fe, and los angeles. There background is angloamerican, mexican, and californio. Our second family are the mclachlans from california. I will talk a little bit about why the women have such long names in just a minute. They are from Lake Superior and or vancouver. This is our cast of characters. Lets start with here we have Margaret Harrison wilson and baby maggie, who was her youngest child in a portrait that was actually done in st. Louis when she left california to visit her mother in a while. That was a portrait made in st. Louis but carried back to Southern California. Like all of these people, margaret is important because of who she marries and the children she bears. She gives us the story of the first trade, the santa fe trade and gold rush california. This should be a familiar image of the first trade, and this shows us a native and french story, which is often the way we think about the first trade. Margaret sale Hereford Wilsons story illustrates how an angloamerican family negotiated the business of the first trade using these kinds of arsenal relationships. People living and trading here could not count on armies and governments really to protect their interests, so they built this world of much more intimate linkages of Business Practices and safety nets. Angloamericans like native americans or the french creole pictured here, recognized the utility of the systematic, dated to it. Said they had the relationship marriage, adoption, bondage, apprenticeship, friendship provide the glue that holds the world together. When the widow margaret sale Hereford Wilson agreed to marry Benjamin Davis wilson, she joined together to families with deep connections to the world of trade, for, and commerce. Her story actually starts about 50 years earlier in 1817 when phyllis and isabella sublet does that ring a bell . They took their eight children from kentucky to st. Louis. Five of the brothers go into the Missouri River, rocky mountain, and santa fe trade in the first half of the 19th century, and they really stand out over the whole west and form this incredible network. Here we have the oldest brother. This is william. He is wearing a fur trade costume designed for him by a scottish lord. This is not actually what he would have worn, but this is, like, his fake dressup for trading guy outfit. This is his business over here, which is a spa, brickworks, and trading post in 18 forties street louis. These brothers william, the oldest, then wilton, pinckney, solomon, and andrew there were quite a few of them all operate at all levels of the first trade the fur trade. They all died or retired with serious injuries. Three of them, when they died, had a running lawsuit with my st. Louis relative, who was a doctor named bernard. He also treated people with names like tag lake smith, which educated like peg leg smith, which indicated he was not very good at fixing the injuries. All of the relatives were suing my relative when they died. The way, Young Margaret sale from alabama appeared in st. Louis, and she is a sublett cousin, and while she is living at her cousin williams house, she meets a young doctor who is also from alabama. His name is Thomas Hereford, someone william has hired to be his fulltime physician after firing my ancestor. They got married in 1842, but his boss, William Sublett dies in 1845, so dr. Hereford goes to work as a merchant right down the road, but the store fails. This is an unfortunately typical western story. That boom and bust frontier economy is a really hard place for people. So thomas failed at his store, and then he heads to santa fe. In 1848 with margaret and their fouryearold son eddie. Margaret reports on all of this to her mother in a series of very sharp toned letters. I really enjoyed the letters because she did not hesitate to let loose about things she was unhappy about. Margaret and thomas are accompanied by solomon sublett, one of the other brothers, who has just married his brothers know, who is also Thomas Herefords sister his brothers widow. You cannot possibly figure this out, but anyway, they are all related in some way. People do not do anything alone. They do things in these family groups because it reduces risk to have your family around you. The family stays in santa fe for about a year, but even with santa fe booming after the war, thomas could not make a living. She felt that he was going to make another attempt at playing at doctoring. Here is a map that shows their travels. They start in st. Louis and end up here where westport would be. They are going down to chihuahua, and eventually, theyre going to go up the coast to california. You could see why margaret might be a little crabby about all of this. Predictably, given thomas track record, chihuahua does not seem to need more doctors, and like all over the world, the herefords decide to try their luck in california where, of course, they have more family connections. Margaret is clearly drought grouchy over thomas constant moving, so she tells her mother that thomas is determined to go to california and she is going with him and there is no alternative. She is thrilled, as you can tell. Thomas sells his equipment and invests in meals. Though no one mentions the gold rush in any of these that is, surely, this is a lower lure in 1850. Margaret and eddie take a ship up to your book when a, which is now San Francisco. Thomas followed on foot hoping to sell mules and goods to eager minors in california. Margaret and eddie are met by andrew sublett, another of margarets cousins and a fur trapper, but the sheriff of San Francisco how these guys just end up on their feet is amazing. It takes thomas six more months to get there. His trip, like so many others when you hope to get rich quick, does not go smoothly at all. Mules get sick. The weather is bad. The cousins who accompanied him left. Thomas finally arrived but, never one to settle for very long, decides to move the family to los angeles. This is los angeles in 1850 seven. Again, he relied on the family network. Now he is running a trading business along with margarets little brother, also named thomas. He goes into business with an excellent local business partner, whose name is Benjamin Davis wilson, who owned property and businesses all over los angeles, and wilson had been one of the first angloamericans in los angeles. Unfortunately, thomas poor health only catches up with him, and he died in 1852 at the home of his new business partner, Benjamin Davis wilson. Like margaret and Thomas Hereford, wilson was also a well educated southerner. This is a picture of Benjamin Davis wilson, and margaret as much older people. Wilson was born in tennessee in 1811, and he began his Business Life as a traitor with the choctaw chickasaw, and like a lot of traders, he gradually moved west and found himself working as a fur trapper. He arrives in california in 1841. First, he sets himself up as a mule trader. Then he opens a store in los angeles and then becomes a cattle rancher. He could only buy a ranch by marrying ramona yorba because he could not buy the land himself. So he marries the 14yearold daughter of a very wealthy man, and the marriage gave him right to land, the right to participate in politics. Just as Thomas Herefords marriage had given him access to this family network, Benjamin Davis marriage had allowed him to become one of the most powerful men in los angeles. Wilson became a californio. He was part of the group of mexicans and anglos who thought of themselves as californians rather than specifically mexicans or americans. He raises have cattle and sheep. Now part of this yorba family, he has power and economic clout in los angeles and has gained the respect of his neighbor. Their children, maria jesus and juanito, spoke spanish and attended convent schools. In 1840 six, wilson tried to protect his family by being american. This is pretty easy for someone who spoke english and had who was immediately made a captain in the United States army, but even with his new status, wilson remained very close to his californio friends and family. Unfortunately, his wife, ramona yorba, died in 1849, and hes left with two little kids, a ranch whose ownership is contested, and deep ties to the mexican community. It is right at this confusing moment when the recent widower meets the dying Thomas Hereford and his wife margaret. At this point, he becomes b. D. Wilson, and who knows how much the widow Margaret Hereford had to do with it, but he went pretty far down the path of claiming his identity as american. Margaret and benjamin went into their marriage with shared experiences. This is one of their wedding photos. This is the brides side of the family. Here we have margaret and b. D. And this is little eddie. I love pictures of children from 1850 because they are always blurred. You have to stand so long for exposure that no pictures of little kids are always clear because they move too much, and this is a great example of that. This is margarets younger brother thomas, so this is the brides side of the family. Both of them had traveled widely. They both valued family connections enormously. Margaret moved into the world of the yorba within. She quickly learn spanish. B. D. Made a new will. He adopted eddie hereford. All the children go to Northern California boarding schools after a long argument about this. Did california actually offer enough educational cultural opportunities for them . B. D. Thought yes. Margaret did not think so. In california, he hoped anybody would recognize their upbringing, family connections, and language as an advantage, whereas outside, they might be seen as mexicans. However, even with these powerful connections, wealth, and power, b. D. And margaret could not protect their blended family from these new ideas about race, land ownership, and that is. They have really pitiful, pitiful letters from homesick young eddie, mocked by the other boys at his center claridge clara with boarding school. He was teased for his poor spanish, and equally pitiful letters from juanito, who was being teased for his equally pitiful english. These are letters from Maria De Jesus wilson, who renamed herself sue when she went to boarding school. Sue, who looked quite mexican unlike her stepfamily, but who spoke and wrote excellent english really did fine. Even though she was pressured to become a protestant by margaret, heard her stepmother, with the support of her yorba relatives, she remained a practicing catholic. She married a gold rush immigrant to california, and they had 11 children. His fathers status and her husbands Financial Success allowed sue and her children to move very easily into the upperclass world of wealthy Southern Californians but also to retain her ties to the california yorba family. Juan bernardo wilson, juanito, really never found a place for himself. It was much harder for boys. Refusing to go to school at various points because he was teased about his image, he was taught at home. As a young man, he ran up debts and really lost his familys trust. New classifications about race made him an mexican and really affected the way people saw him in 1860s california, so he moved back to Southern California where he lived with his yorba cousins and uncles, maybe feeling more at home in that world. In 1870, while b. D. Was in washington serving as a senator, johnny killed himself at