Janet Lecompte, daughter of Dorothy Price Shaw, has continued the investigation into the origin of the Jimmy Camp name. In her book, Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn, published in 1978, she devoted a chapter to a spiritualist mountaineer by the name of John Brown. Her investigastions showed Brown to have been a friend and contemporary of Jimmy Daugherty. Both men worked for trader Lancaster Lupton in the early 1840's.br>
Brown was known as a simple and honest man, even if somewhat obsessed with the predictions of his "Spirit Guide." This guide appeared to him in dreams, foretelling the future, often warning him of possible dngers. In 1849, John Brown moved to California and wrote a series of articles on his spiritual experiences. Some of these articles were later gathered into a book and published in the late 1880's under the title, Mediumistic Experiences of John Brown, the Medium of the Rockies. In the writings of John Brown, Janet Lecompte has found references to Jimmy Daugherty; from these references she has been able to deduce:
"During the winter (1841-42) Brown and Jimmy had set off afoot driving two yoke of oxen from Lupton's Arkansas Fort to Fort Lancaster on the South Platte to fetch a wagonload of dried buffalo meat. Rube Herring, burgeois of Fort Lancaster, excused Brown from returning with Daugherty, who set off for the Arkansas with a Mexican. At Jimmy's Camp, just east of present Colorado Springs, the Mexican murdered Daugherty, stole his blanket and two bolts of manta, and escaped to Taos."(1)
A further elaboration on this research has come down in the form of a Christmas greeting sent out by the Banning-Lewis Ranches several years ago. The greetings contained the Jimmy Camp story as told by Janet Lecompte. The story reads:
"Jimmy Daughety was a trapper, wise in the ways of Indians and beaver, afraid of nothing except a world where there were no Indians or beaver. He must have come from Ireland, for he pronounced his name 'Dockerty' with a rich Irish gutteral sound. How many years he had been a trapper the records do not show; in 1834, however, he signed up for three years with the American Fur Company as a beaver trapper on the Upper Missouri River. When he got back to St. Louis in 1837 he had no money at all, for in the mountains the company paid its men in goods at exorbitant 'mountain prices.' He had a litle credit on the company books, though, and he squandered it gaily on bright colored handkerchiefa, a dashing capot (a hooded cape), and a few drinks at a St. Louis tavern." (2)
Jimmy Daughety soon after went to work for Sarpy and Fraeb at Fort Jackson on the South Platte River. When the two Indian traders went broke in 1838, Jimmy moved upstream to Fort Lancaster. Here he became acquainted with medium John Brown. During the winter of 1841-42, Jimmy, John Brown and a Mexican made a trip over the divide trail from Lupton's Post on the Arkansas to Fort Lancaster to pick up a load of dried buffalo meat. While at the fort, John Brown was warned by his "Spirit Guide" that he and his companion would surely die if they returned south with the Mexican. Immediately, Brown sought and received permission to remain where he was. Jimmy, even though forewarned, set off alone with the Mexican, who murdered him near a cold spring some 20 miles east of Pike's Peak. The Mexican fled south, taking the trader's blanket and two bolts of unbleached muslin. Jimmy's body he left unburied in the campground which ever after bore that name.(3)
With these investigations of Janet Lecompte, the story of Jimmy Daugherty has finally come full circle. The essential facts remain as told by Rufus B. Sage in September of 1842, just a few months after the incident. John Brown's revelations, together with the other researched information on Jimmy Daugherty's career as an Indian trader, only serve to make this story read even better than fiction.
©1999 2000 Richard Gehling
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FOOTNOTES:
(1) - Janet Lecompte, Pueblo, Hardscrabble, Greenhorn (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978), P.281
(2) - Christmas Greetings - The Jimmy Camp Story, sent out by the Banning-Lewis Ranches. A copy was given to the Old Colorado City Historical Society by Mrs. William Ellis.br>
(3) - Based on the research of Janet Lecompte as printed in the Christmas Greetings - the Jimmy Camp Story sent out by the Banning-Lewis Ranches. There was a Daugherty (no first name) mentioned as an employee of Sarpy and Fraeb at Fort Jackson in the Chouteau-Maffitt Collection of fur trade papers owned by the Missouri Historical Society, Calendar Nos. 705-706.