A Rare Jim Baker Combination: A Cabinet Card Photograph And A Letter By This Famous Trapper, Indian Fighter, Scout, Guide, And Frontiersman.

Born in Bellevue, Illinois in 1818. Baker first went up the Missouri River for the American Fur Company in 1838, spent 2 years in the Rockies, returning to Illinois in 1840. He accompanied emigrants to Green River in 1841, and remained in the mountains for several years. He guided Captain Randolph Marcy from Ft. Bridger to Ft. Union, New Mexico in late 1857, guiding Marcy's return to Ft. Bridger in 1858. Baker settled in Denver in 1859, occasionally guiding parties into the Rockies. He moved to Dixon, Wyoming, on the Colorado/Wyoming border, in 1873, and died in Savery, Wyoming in 1898. The Collection is as follows: _Photograph_: Cabinet Card. 5.5"x4", Mount 6.375"x4.25". C. H. Wells, Denver, Colorado. A clean, clear, fine image in Fine condition. This photograph was from the collection of Robert G. McCubbin, and handwritten notation on back of photograph states that it was "Given to Dr. Mumey by Mrs. J. H. Gewinner. June 1958." _Letter_: A single page, neatly written in a highly legible and attractive script, and filling both sides of the page. An interesting, informative, and detailed letter to Mr. Alexander H. McKelvey, of Kearney, Nebraska, responding to a letter McKelvey had written to Baker inquiring as to whether Baker knew McKelvey's uncle, who had apparently gone West, like Baker, with the American Fur Company in 1838. "You are correct in the belief of my being in the employ of the Amer. Fur Co., and coming West in 1838, from St. Louis, but I do not remember a man by the name of Alexander McKelvey, altho. he may have been one of our party, for it is now nearly sixty years ago....There were one hundred and ten of us altogether, forty of whom were trappers and more than one half of these were frenchmen-Five or six of the remainder were American boys of whom I was about the youngest. We were called the "Powder Monkeys"--My calling being trapping I was in all probability separated from the Sappers & Miners as soon as we got out on the frontier...being one of the very youngest, my immediate & intimate associates would naturally be among the very youngest of our party, thus separating me from the older ones, of whom your uncle was probably one...we never troubled ourselves to remember or even to learn a man's name, but called him by the first nickname that suggested itself and by this name he was always afterward known...Your uncle might have been known as "Sap.", being a Sapper, or possibly as Mac or Alec., in fact anything but his true name." Baker's kind and charming letter goes on to share many other similar insights. His letter closes with "I remain respectfully Yours, James Baker." Directly below, and to the left is the following: Dictated to and written by Miers Fisher, Denver Colo." Letter is dated Octo. 20th 1859, and is corrected by hand to 1895, which accurately reflects Baker's comment that "it is now nearly sixty years ago" that he went West in 1838. Letter has 2 vertical folds and 4 horizontal folds, with splitting to several folds. Housed and protected in a clear lucite display case, fully displaying both sides of the letter. A rare and unique combination!!