John David Albert

For other uses, see John Albert.

John David Albert (May 24, 1810 – April 24, 1899) was an American mountain man.

John David Albert
John David Albert, circa 1895
Born	(1810-05-24)May 24, 1810 Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland
Died	April 24, 1899 (1899-04-25) (aged 88) Montana
Occupation(s)	Frontiersman, hunter, fur trapper

Early life

John David Albert was born in Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland, and was baptized in St. Johns Evangelical Lutheran Church. Albert was orphaned in 1812 around the age of two. His father died in the War of 1812, and his mother soon after, leaving Albert to live with a sister in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Frontiersman

After working on a Mississippi keelboat in 1833, Albert went west in 1834 with a group of approximately sixty hunters to trap. He soon became part of the Western department of the American Fur Company at Fort Laramie. In 1836, he was sent to the South Platte area, where the weather trapped him for the winter on the Cache la Poudre. In the spring, he went to Fort William, later known as Bent's Fort, on the Arkansas River. From March to October 1838 he was employed at Fort Jackson by Peter Sarpy and Henry Fraeb.

In 1847 he was employed at Simeon Turley's Mill and Distillery about 12 miles (19 km) north of Taos at Arroyo Hondo. He was one of eight to ten mountain men who defended the mill in a siege by approximately 500 Mexicans and Indians during the Taos Revolt. Seeing the approaching mob, Charles Autobees rode to Santa Fe to get help. The remaining mountain men held off the attack into the night, when Albert and Autobees' half brother Thomas Tate Tobin escaped separately on foot in the confusion of the fighting. Albert and Tobin were the only two men to escape Turley's Mill alive. In three days, Albert walked 140 miles (230 km) to the trading post at Pueblo, through winter conditions with no coat, having escaped only with his weapons and shooting bag. Tobin walked to Santa Fe.

John David Albert later settled in the Taos Valley, marrying Juliana León, the daughter of Miguel Antonio León.

He carried mail out of the Spanish Peaks post office at Cuchara station, trapped on the Purgatory and Cucharas rivers, and is credited with building the fort at La Plaza de la Leones.

He was a close friend of Jim Baker, and co-led the parade of Denver's Festival of Mountain and Plain with Baker in 1895.

Death

Albert survived three wives, all of whom were partially or fully Mexican and all of whom died while married to him, and fathered 21 children before his death in Montana. He is buried in the old Catholic Cemetery at Walsenburg, Colorado.

References

• Baker, Leighton (1986). Jim Baker - The Red Headed Shoshone. Salt Warrior Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-9611028-3-7.
• Dawson, Thomas. Dawson Scrap Books. Special Collections: Colorado Historical Society. volume 1 pages 369 and 427, Volume 75 pages 277–79. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
• Hafen, LeRoy (1965). Mountain Men and Fur Trade of the Far West Vol. II. The Arthur H. Clark Co. pp. 21–26. ASIN B000HKMU3I.
• Hafen, LeRoy; Carter (1983). Trappers of the Far West: Sixteen Biographical Sketches. Bison Books/Univ. of Nebraska Press. p. 257. ISBN 0-8032-7218-9.
• Hafen; Hafen (1977). Our State: Colorado, A History of Progress. Old West Textbooks. p. 119. ASIN B000HJIAI8.
• Hall, Frank (1891). History of the State of Colorado Vol III. Rocky Mountain Historical Company. pp. 496–7. ASIN B000I4RCPE.
• Lavender, David (1972). Bent's Fort. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 184–5, 304–5. ISBN 0-8032-5753-8.
• Lecompte, Janet (1999). Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn: Society on the High Plains, 1832-1856. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 193–5. ISBN 0-8061-1723-0.
• Moore, Mike. "John Albert: One of Colorado's Own". Archived from the original on 2006-05-12. Retrieved 2006-09-16.
• Perkins, James E. (1999). Tom Tobin: Frontiersman. Herodotus Press. ISBN 0-9675562-0-1. Online book review at Denver Post.
• Ruxton, George; Hafen (1984). Ruxton of the Rockies. Univ of Oklahoma Press. pp. 219–220. ISBN 0-8061-1591-2.
• Vestal, Stanley (1937). Mountain Men. Ayer Co Publishing. pp. 223–5. ISBN 0-8369-1397-3.
• Fort Lewis College Center of Southwest Studies newspaper collection.
  • "A Colorado Pioneer". Dolores News - Rico, CO. October 31, 1885.
• Denver Public Library, Western History/Genealogy Department newspaper collection.
  • "Obituary". Rocky Mountain News. April 24, 1899.
  • "Three Old Timers who came to Colorado in the Early Part of the Last Century". Denver Post. January 24, 1904.

Further reading

• Durand, John (2004). The Taos Massacres. Elkhorn, WI: Puzzlebox Press. p. 271. ISBN 0-9743783-0-5.