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    Perilous Paths: The Story of Robert Mcclellan: Indian Fighter, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, and Member of the John J. Astor Fur Company
    Perilous Paths: The Story of Robert Mcclellan: Indian Fighter, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, and Member of the John J. Astor Fur Company
    Perilous Paths: The Story of Robert Mcclellan: Indian Fighter, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, and Member of the John J. Astor Fur Company
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    Perilous Paths: The Story of Robert Mcclellan: Indian Fighter, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, and Member of the John J. Astor Fur Company

    By George G. McClellan

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    About this ebook

    In Perilous Paths, author George G. McClellan seamlessly combines history, biography, and story as he narrates the early history of our countrys movement from the east to the west through the eyes of Robert McClellan as he experiences successes and failures along the way.

    This story focuses on one small but important piece of the history after the Revolutionary War. It tells of real, rugged men like McClellana son of Ulster Scots immigrants born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1770who performed tasks in harsh conditions that would be considered dangerous, even foolhardy, today. Perilous Paths follows the footsteps made by McClellan from his youthful days as an army packer to his exploits as an Indian scout, army ranger, and spy. It details how he fought alongside Lewis and Clark, gained an education in reading and arithmetic for the army quartermaster corps, and then moved west to Missouri and succumbed to the lure of the unknown, entering Indian country where he trapped furs and traded with the Indians of what would eventually become the American Midwest.

    Marking the trials, tribulations and hardships, this history highlights McClellans independence of character, the hardships he faced, and his desperate survival against unknown odds with a rugged determination to succeed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateJun 5, 2012
    ISBN9781475925296
    Perilous Paths: The Story of Robert Mcclellan: Indian Fighter, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, and Member of the John J. Astor Fur Company
    Author

    George G. McClellan

    George G. McClellan is a US Army veteran, five-year California Highway Patrol veteran, retired civilian special agent of the US Naval (Criminal) Investigative Service, International Police Task Force team commander, state court bailiff, tax enforcement officer, world traveler, writer, and amateur historian. He and his wife live in Ellijay, Georgia.

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      Book preview

      Perilous Paths - George G. McClellan

      Copyright © 2012 by George G. McClellan

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-2531-9 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-2530-2 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-2529-6 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012908350

      iUniverse rev. date: 05/23/2012

      CONTENTS

      Dedication

      Foreword

      Preface

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      The Ohio Indian War Period

      The Trapping Period

      The Northwest Exploration Period

      Other Characters

      About the Author

      Dedication

      This story is simply dedicated to those men and women who faced the dangers of a land unknown. These were people who willingly pressed on into the wilderness to encounter savage Indians, inclement weather, harsh conditions, wild animals, and starvation, all to fulfill a dream. That dream could have been the normal human desire of creating wealth or simply seeing what was on the other side of the mountain. Nevertheless, it was from people like these that the spirit of independence, rugged individualism, and self-reliance was forged as an identifiable American trait.

      Foreword

      History. Biography. Story. George McClellan has succeeded in combining all three of these genres of literature into one extraordinarily interesting and well-written work.

      Someone has said that history can be properly told only though the lives and experiences of the people who live it. That is what happens here. The early history of our country’s movement from the east to the west is seen primarily through the eyes of Robert McClellan as he and others experience successes and failures along the way.

      In my more than fifty years as a student and teacher of literature, I came to recognize early on that literature is frequently a record of the history of the time in which it is written or the time about which it is written, hence the term historical novel. Although this work cannot be described as a novel, it is certainly a historical/biographical narrative well worth reading by those of us who love all genres of literature.

      Thank you, George, for bringing this story to us. Perhaps you can later expand it to become a novel!

      David Morgan Jones,

      Associate Professor Emeritus of English, (Retired),

      Kennesaw State University, Marietta, Georgia

      Preface

      This is a biography, and biographies are histories. A history is simply a story that tells us of what has happened in the past. History should not be boring! A biographical history is, or should be, based entirely on facts, and facts are those niggling little things that have to be dug out with good research. When revealed, facts nearly always shine the light of understanding, and oftentimes amusement, on what was once a cloudy issue.

      This biography focuses on a small but important piece of the history of America’s early westward expansion. It involves real, rugged men who did real things in harsh conditions that would be considered dangerous, even foolhardy, today. The time was the post–Revolutionary War period. The men of that era were hard, tough, and independent, with little education except in farming and survival skills. This was especially true about one man: Robert McClellan, a son of Ulster Scots immigrants born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1770. This book is an almost complete telling of this man’s singular exploits as a packer, army ranger, and spy, and later as a fur trapper and explorer of the northwest territory immediately after Lewis and Clark. In the course of his adventures, however, we meet other interesting characters whose contributions and collaborations with McClellan cannot be ignored. Together, they all followed perilous paths.

      My sources were articles published in the Franklin County Pennsylvania School Annual, written by a John L. Finafrock around 1919; the Kittochtinny Historical Society, also written by Finafrock; records of the Missouri Historical Society; and Spanish records on file in the Biblioteca de Mexico in Mexico City. Collectively, these documents provide a detailed, splendidly documented account of that period, and of Robert McClellan’s part in it.

      Before I go any further, lest any confusion may occur, I must say that I can make no genealogical connection between the fellow whose story I am relating and my own line. Perhaps there is a connection; it’s entirely possible, but I have no proof. That doesn’t stop me, however, from sharing a very singular story about a very interesting man. It is a story that highlights his independence of character, the hardships he faced, and his desperate survival against unknown odds with a rugged determination to succeed.

      History should come alive. It should not be consigned to the dull, broad brushstrokes of school textbooks. History should be accompanied by revelations that illuminate so that when you do sit back and read you can say to yourself, My God, why did they do that? or How could they do that? or even Weren’t they afraid of getting their heads bashed in? When that happens, you know you have another good read on your hands—not one of fiction but a true-life read that will add to your collective knowledge as well as your enjoyment. That book will find its way to your own library shelf.

      Acknowledgments

      I would like to thank Mark

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