Fifteenth Generation

114. James Felix "Jim" BRIDGER III was born on 17 March 1804 in Richmond, Henrico County, Virginia Colony, British Colonial America. Biography: "James Felix Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old Gabe in his later years.  He was from the Bridger family of Virginia, English immigrants that had been in North America since the early colonial period.

His parents were James Bridger, an innkeeper in Richmond, and his wife Chloe. About 1812, the family moved near St. Louis at the eastern edge of America's vast new western frontier.  At age 13, Bridger was orphaned; he had no formal education, was unable to read or write, and was apprenticed to a blacksmith.  He was illiterate the whole of his life.  On March 20, 1822, at age 18, he left his apprenticeship after responding to an advertisement in a St. Louis newspaper, the Missouri Republican, and joined General William Henry Ashley's fur trapping expedition to the upper Missouri River. The party included Jedediah Smith and many others who would later become famous mountain men.  For the next 20 years, he repeatedly traversed the continental interior between the Canada–U.S. border and the southern boundary of present-day Colorado, and from the Missouri River westward to Idaho and Utah, either as an employee of or a partner in the fur trade.

Bridger was part of the second generation of American mountain men and pathfinders that followed the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 and became well known for participating in numerous early expeditions into the western interior as well as mediating between Native American tribes and westward-migrating European-American settlers. By the end of his life, he had earned a reputation as one of the foremost frontiersmen in the  American Old West. He was described as having a strong constitution that allowed him to survive the extreme conditions he encountered while exploring the Rocky Mountains from what would become southern Colorado to the Canadian border. He had conversational knowledge of French, Spanish, and several indigenous languages.

In 1830, Bridger and several associates purchased a fur company from Jedediah Smith and others, which they named the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Bridger was among the first mountain men to explore the natural wonders of the Yellowstone region. In the fall of 1824, Bridger explored the Great Salt Lake region, reaching it by bull boat. He was one of the first people to explore Yellowstone’s springs and geysers. Jim also shared that the creek split into two, one side went to the Pacific Ocean and the other side the Atlantic Ocean. Jim Bridger took a raft on the rapids at Big Horn River; he was the only man to do this.

In 1835, Bridger married a woman from the Flathead tribe that he named "Emma", with whom he had three children. After her death in 1846 from fever, he married the daughter of a Shoshone chief, who died in childbirth three years later. In 1850, he married Shoshone Chief Washakie's daughter Mary Washakie Bridger and they raised two children. Some of his children were sent back east to be educated. His firstborn Mary Ann was killed by a band of aborigines while being tutored. His son Felix, who fought with the Missouri Artillery, died of sickness on Bridger's farm. His daughter Josephine, who married Jim Baker, also died, leaving his daughter Virginia as his only living child.

In 1843, Bridger and Louis Vasquez established Fort Bridger on the Blacks Fork of the Green River along the Oregon Trail.  Bridger had explored, trapped, hunted and blazed new trails in the West since 1822 and later worked as a wilderness guide in these areas. He could reportedly assess any wagon train or group, their interests in travel, and give them expert advice on any and all aspects of heading West, over any and all trails, and to any destination the party had in mind, if the leaders sought his advice. In 1846, the Donner Party came to Fort Bridger and were assured by Bridger and Vasquez that Lansford Hastings' proposed shortcut ahead was "a fine, level road, with plenty of water and grass, with the exception before stated (a forty-mile waterless stretch)." The 40-mile stretch was in fact 80 miles, and the "fine level road" was difficult enough to slow the Donner Party, who become trapped in the Sierra Nevada in the winter.

In 1850, while guiding the Stansbury Expedition on its return from Utah, Bridger discovered what would eventually become known as Bridger Pass, an alternate overland route which bypassed South Pass and shortened the Oregon Trail by 61 miles. Bridger Pass, in what is now south-central Wyoming, would later become the chosen route across the Continental Divide, for the Overland Stage, Pony Express, the Union Pacific Railroad Overland Route, and Interstate 80. In 1864, Bridger blazed the Bridger Trail, an alternative route from Wyoming to the gold fields of Montana that avoided the dangerous Bozeman Trail. In 1865, he served as Chief of Scouts during the Powder River Expedition. 

From 16 July 1857 until July 1858, Bridger was employed as a guide during the Utah War. In 1859, Bridger was paid to be the chief guide on the Yellowstone-bound Raynolds Expedition, led by Captain William F. Raynolds. Though unsuccessful in reaching Yellowstone, because of deep snow, the expedition explored Jackson Hole and Pierre's Hole. In 1861, Bridger served as a guide for Edward L. Berthoud. From October 1863 until April 1864, Bridger was employed as a guide at Fort Laramie. Bridger then served as a scout under Colonel Henry B. Carrington during Red Cloud's War. Bridger was stationed at Fort Phil Kearny during the Fetterman Massacre, and the Wagon Box Fight. Bridger was discharged on 21 July 1868.
 
Suffering from goiter and rheumatism, Bridger returned to Missouri in 1868. He was unsuccessful in collecting back rent from the government for lease on Fort Bridger. By 1875, he was blind. Bridger died on his farm near Kansas City, Missouri, on July 17, 1881, at age 77. In later years, among other sites, the Bridger Peak in Utah, the Bridger Pass in Wyoming, and the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming were named for him. The latter is the third largest National Forest outside of Alaska." He appeared in the census in 1850 in Weber County, UT. At the time (before statehood), Weber County was in the Utah Territory. He appeared in the census in 1870 in Westport, Jackson County, MO. Jim appeared in the census in 1880 in Washington Township, Jackson County, MO. He died on 17 July 1881 at the age of 77 in Kansas City, Jackson County, MO. Newspaper Article: "Death of a Plainsman.  Jim Bridger, the noted hunter, plainsman, pioneer and scout, for whom Fort Bridger was named, died at his home south of Westport. Bridger was over 73 years old at the time of his death. He has been permanently disabled by wounds and injuries for sixteen years and for the last three ... in his dotage. He died of old age." He was buried in 1904 in Independence, Jackson County, MO. in the Mount Washington Cemetery.

James Felix "Jim" BRIDGER III and Cora INSALA were married in 1835. at the Green River Rendevous. Cora INSALA, daughter of (Unknown) INSALA and Unknown FLATHEAD, was born in 1820. She died in 1847 at the age of 27 in Weber County, UT. at Fort Bridger in the Green River Precinct.

James Felix "Jim" BRIDGER III and Cora INSALA had the following children:

James Felix "Jim" BRIDGER III and Mary "Two Fawns" WASHAKIE were married in 1849 in Fort Bridger, Uinta County, WY. Mary "Two Fawns" WASHAKIE was born in 1828 in Green River, Sweetwater County, Wyoming Territory. She died in January 1858 at the age of 30 in New Santa Fe, Jackson County, MO.

James Felix "Jim" BRIDGER III and Mary "Two Fawns" WASHAKIE had the following children:

James Felix "Jim" BRIDGER III and Ute Native Woman UNKNOWN (BRIDGER) were married in September 1848. Ute Native Woman UNKNOWN (BRIDGER) was born about 1820 in Ute Indian Territory. She died on 4 July 1849 at the age of 29.

James Felix "Jim" BRIDGER III and Ute Native Woman UNKNOWN (BRIDGER) had the following children: