Edwin James (scientist)

Born in Weybridge, Vermont, to Mary (Emmes) and Daniel James, a deacon. The youngest child, he grew up in a log house set among wooded hills. James inherited several of his father's traits. He was thoughtful, studious, and had "untiring perseverance". He was "accustomed to cull treasures of rich thought from works of nature and a wide range of readings." == Expedition to the Rocky Mountains ==

The second year of the Long Expedition began June 6, 1820 when the members, now including 22-year-old Edwin James, left the overwintering camp, Engineer Cantonment, near the eastern border of the current state of Nebraska. They headed west toward the Rockies, following, for the most part, the Platte River, then south along the Rocky Mountain Front Range, before heading east toward the expedition's ending location (which occurred on September 13, 1820) at Fort Smith, in what is now western Arkansas. On July 13, James and two others set out to climb Pikes Peak. As James writes in his Account: On the morning of the 14th... we continued the ascent, hoping to be able to reach the summit of the Peak, and return to the same camp in the evening... A little above the point where the timber disappears entirely, commences a region of astonishing beauty... covered with a carpet of low but brilliantly flowering alpine plants... We now found it would be impossible to reach the summit of the mountain, and return to our camp of the preceding night, during that part of the day which remained; but as we could not persuade ourselves to turn back, after having so nearly accomplished the ascent, we resolved to take our chance of spending the night, on whatever part of the mountain, it might overtake us... We met, as we proceeded, such numbers of unknown and interesting plants, as to occasion much delay in collecting, and were under the disagreeable necessity of passing by numbers which we saw in situations difficult of access. used the phrase "a region of astonishing beauty", from the above, for the title of his 2003 book on Rocky Mountains botanical history. After reaching the Peak, James describes the natural history of the summit, and goes on to describe the view in all directions in some detail, including smoke in a valley to the north "supposed to indicate the encampment of a party of Indians." (In South America, Alexander von Humboldt reached around 5,800 m / 19,000 ft on Mt. Chimborazo in 1802.) For a time, the mountain was called "James Peak". '') (Torr.) Raf. Due to traversing a largely uncharted country, it was not always clear from James' journal exactly where each camp and collecting site was. The expedition's path was retraced 170 years later, using James' diary and scenic paintings of the expedition's artist, Samuel Seymour. In spite of considerable change over the years, sites were located with accuracy. The James Peak Wilderness and its summit in Colorado were named for James. == Army surgeon ==

Subsequently James was appointed US Army surgeon to serve at various frontier outposts including the Great Lakes region; he served from 1823 to 1833. ==Native American subagent and linguist==

While, with the Army he interacted with Native Americans, most notably the Ojibwe with whose language he became familiar. A Euro-American, John Tanner, captured by the Ojibwe as a child and raised among them, worked closely with James in the production of the New Testament in the Ojibwe language and in the telling of Tanner's life story. Edwin was an Indian subagent to the Potawatomi in Bellevue, Nebraska, where he created grade-school spellers for the children’s education. ==Personal life and career in Iowa==

In 1827, while still working for the Army but during a return visit to the East, James married Clara Rogers, who was describes as a beautiful woman "of talent and fond of society". In 1836, James established a medical practice, he built a large stone house four miles west of Burlington, Iowa in Union Township, He hid escaped enslaved people in baskets, barrels, and sacks. He built a secret room in his house behind a fireplace. James helped fugitives travel north along the Underground Railroad. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required people in free states to return runaway people back to slavery, but James was against the law. James picked up a black man who had stayed at the Western Hotel in his farm wagon. Two bounty hunters from Missouri, a slave state, came to town in search of a man named Dick who escaped from a farm in Clark County. It was assumed that the man would be sent to Missouri, but it was determined that he was not the man from Clark County, so he was released to travel along the Underground Railroad, at the cheers of James' neighbors. Although now openly known as an abolitionist and Underground Railroad operative, James continued to assist runaways throughout his life. Clara died in 1854, leaving James in great sorrow. James himself died in 1861, when he was crushed after falling under the wheels of his wagon while loading firewood. Both of them were buried in the Rock Spring Cemetery. Years later, Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine were planted around his grave by the Des Moines County Medical Society. ==Works==

• James, Edwin (1823, Philadelphia edition). • James, Edwin (1823, Philadelphia edition) . • James, Edwin (1823, London edition). in three volumes. • • • James, Edwin (ed). (1830) • James, Edwin, with John Tanner. (1833) ==References==