This Day…

1812 Wilson Hunt arrives at Astoria, Oregon.  Having departed St. Louis more than two years earlier, Wilson Hunt and his party stumble into the fur-trading post of Astoria, Oregon.

1822 – Ashley Tribune advertises for western fur trappers

1861 Kansas enters the Union.

1875 Pinkertons maim Frank and Jesse James’ mother .  Mistakenly believing Frank and Jesse James are hiding out at their family home, a gang of men–likely led by Pinkerton detectives–mount a raid that leaves the outlaws’ mother permanently maimed and their nine-year-old half-brother dead.

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold on the property of Johann A. Sutter near Coloma, California. A builder, Marshall was overseeing construction of a sawmill on the American River.

1850 Alta California becomes a daily paper, 1st such in California.

1873 A group of Modoc warriors defeats the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, a part of the Modoc War.

1865  Fort Fisher falls  On this day in 1865, Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to Union forces, and Wilmington, North Carolina, the Confederacy’s most important blockade-running port, is closed.

1838 Joseph Smith abandons Ohio.   After his Mormon bank fails in the Panic of 1837, Joseph Smith flees Kirtland, Ohio, to avoid arrest and heads for Missouri to rebuild his religious community.